as in sadness
disapproving
a feeling of pity for yourself because you believe you have suffered more than is fair or reasonable
He was wallowing in self-pity. She spoke without a trace of self-pity.
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Recent Examples of self-pity
The question felt more confrontational than self-pitying.
—
Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
Pixar has never hesitated to show childhood tumult before, or to explore the feelings that might lead someone to act out, but Elio’s combination of mourning and self-pity are a genuine challenge.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 17 June 2025
Weinstein had a self-pitying and widely covered jailhouse conversation with right-wing commentator Candace Owens in March.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 12 June 2025
The work of avoiding such ignominious history and getting this turned around is Warren Schaeffer’s to do, and the former Yard Goats skipper is not giving despair or self-pity the time of day.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for self-pity
Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
Pixar has never hesitated to show childhood tumult before, or to explore the feelings that might lead someone to act out, but Elio’s combination of mourning and self-pity are a genuine challenge.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 17 June 2025
Weinstein had a self-pitying and widely covered jailhouse conversation with right-wing commentator Candace Owens in March.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 12 June 2025
The work of avoiding such ignominious history and getting this turned around is Warren Schaeffer’s to do, and the former Yard Goats skipper is not giving despair or self-pity the time of day.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for self-pity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-pity
Noun
-
Jane Goodall’s passing is a moment of profound sadness.—
Jessica Coacci,
Fortune,
8 Oct. 2025
-
Multiplying forms of addiction, proliferating mental illness—in the midst of the Iraq War, with the Cold War paradigm dead alongside the USSR, and the Regan 1980s in the rearview, the United States of the 00s was marked by a pervasive sadness captured in Wallace’s prose.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Meanwhile, the central Tennessee community that is home to the plant is grappling with a wave of grief as 16 families try to make sense of the tragedy.—
Dalia Faheid,
CNN Money,
12 Oct. 2025
-
Zhao is in London promoting her newest film Hamnet, starring Irish talent Mescal as William Shakespeare and Buckley as his wife, Agnes, who are thrown into contrasting experiences of grief following the death of their young son, Hamnet.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
12 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Running underneath all of our efforts was heartache, sorrow, and anxiety over her loss.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Oct. 2025
-
In early Christian thinking, its connotations of languor and listlessness, within the spirit no less than the body, lent it the status of a sin—a turning aside from God for the sake of earthly sorrow.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
An aura of melancholy does not stop Madvillainy from being endlessly joyful and playful.—
Pitchfork,
Pitchfork,
30 Sep. 2025
-
But even here, the ache of the lovers’ separation registers with only a muffled sense of melancholy.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
These sequences feel so siloed off that the misery never informs the majesty, and vice versa.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
11 Oct. 2025
-
That would be a fine enough place to end the story, and in Garrett’s original screenplay, the final pages only extended that misery.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
That pivot is in Alex’s sudden move toward becoming an amateur stand-up comic, using the stage and the microphone as therapy platforms for his anguish.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
10 Oct. 2025
-
Nothing has surfaced to document her anguish.—
Jane Kamensky,
The Atlantic,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Bryant is the type of player whose expression can often tell the story of the day, both in times of joy and agony.—
Michael-Shawn Dugar,
New York Times,
6 Oct. 2025
-
Stafford danced for six minutes while wearing them but spent 14 hours in agony.—
Mark Ellwood,
Robb Report,
5 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Appropriate to the popular conception of the morose genius, Poe’s initial 1849 funeral, held amidst the October gloom, was sparsely attended.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Oct. 2025
-
Over the years, Cramer has been warning against the doom-and-gloom calls from billionaire investors.—
Morgan Chittum,
CNBC,
6 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-pity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-pity. Accessed 16 Oct. 2025.
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