Synonyms of self-effacing

self-effacing

adjective

ˌself-i-ˈfā-siŋ 

as in withdrawn

not comfortable around people

he's dating a sweet, self-effacing girl

Synonyms & Similar Words

• withdrawn
• shy
• bashful
• modest
• lone
• introverted
• sheepish
• coy
• retiring
• diffident
• recessive
• backward
• demure
• reserved
• awkward
• embarrassed
• antisocial
• unsociable
• unassertive
• unsocial
• uptight
• self-conscious
• uneasy
• lone-wolf
• inhibited
• unadventurous
• unenterprising

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• outgoing
• extroverted
• social
• immodest
• gregarious
• sociable
• convivial
• companionable
• forceful
• bold
• boon
• uninhibited
• clubbable
• brash
• dashing
• unreserved
• forward
• overbold

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of self-effacing

Recipe development can be a self-effacing task, obliging the writer to anticipate the appetites and routines of her imagined reader. — Hannah Goldfield, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026

Compared to Chalamet, another leading man with great range but more naked ambition than Pattinson, the British star’s self-effacing personality comes across as more endearing, Weekman believes. — David MacK, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026

The biography, drawn from interviews with Altman as well as with more than 250 of his friends, family, and associates, casts a balanced portrait of a figure who is by turns self-effacing and cognizant of his unique place in history. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Aug. 2026

The overbearing online explainers and the off-the-cuff fuzz-rockers and the nine-and-counting films and the self-effacing but also self-aggrandizing mockumentary spin out from the same very modern feeling that to be is to respond and react. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 24 July 2026