as in guilt
a feeling of responsibility for wrongdoing
he was filled with self-reproach for causing the accident
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Recent Examples of self-reproach
That guilt can deepen the cycle, turning what started as self-care into self-reproach.
—
Christine Michel Carter, Parents, 20 May 2025
Orsolya is apparently wracked with feelings of complicity, though the film, which is made up mainly of extended shots of her conversations with other people, questions the sincerity of her self-reproach against a backdrop of ethnic tension and neoliberal sprawl in Romania.
—Beatrice Loayza, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
Amanda’s self-reproach expresses a depressed national mood.
—Armond White, National Review, 10 Apr. 2024
Jihan was overtaken by bitterness and self-reproach.
—Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Festivus has its airing of grievances and the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August may feature the wailing of self-reproach.
—James Freeman, WSJ, 26 Dec. 2023
One of the many poignant aspects of Nick’s early death is that his friends have carried a lifelong sense of regret and even self-reproach.
—Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 18 Dec. 2023
For an artist, self-reproach and self-aggrandizement can be two faces of the same mirror.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 30 Nov. 2023
The genre is like a psychological tattoo on a culture that has lost faith in itself — like the bourgeois self-reproach in Yazmina Reza’s puerile God of Carnage that Roman Polanski filmed.
—Armond White, National Review, 29 Nov. 2023
Christine Michel Carter, Parents, 20 May 2025
Orsolya is apparently wracked with feelings of complicity, though the film, which is made up mainly of extended shots of her conversations with other people, questions the sincerity of her self-reproach against a backdrop of ethnic tension and neoliberal sprawl in Romania.
—Beatrice Loayza, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
Amanda’s self-reproach expresses a depressed national mood.
—Armond White, National Review, 10 Apr. 2024
Jihan was overtaken by bitterness and self-reproach.
—Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Festivus has its airing of grievances and the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August may feature the wailing of self-reproach.
—James Freeman, WSJ, 26 Dec. 2023
One of the many poignant aspects of Nick’s early death is that his friends have carried a lifelong sense of regret and even self-reproach.
—Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 18 Dec. 2023
For an artist, self-reproach and self-aggrandizement can be two faces of the same mirror.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 30 Nov. 2023
The genre is like a psychological tattoo on a culture that has lost faith in itself — like the bourgeois self-reproach in Yazmina Reza’s puerile God of Carnage that Roman Polanski filmed.
—Armond White, National Review, 29 Nov. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-reproach
Noun
-
As their father, Ruffalo’s charm belies a chasm of guilt, which is at the root of all that Hal & Harper is trying to uncover.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
6 June 2025
-
An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt: A 36-year-old man from Chicago was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass to a vehicle at 1:01 p.m. May 29 at the police station, 1350 Aurora Ave.—
Steve Metsch,
Chicago Tribune,
6 June 2025
Noun
-
Marc Lasry, cofounder and CEO of Avenue Capital Group and the former co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, didn’t express any seller’s remorse for cashing out his stake in the Bucks at a $3.5 billion valuation in 2023, even as the Boston Celtics sold in a deal worth more than $6 billion this year.—
Hank Tucker,
Forbes.com,
5 June 2025
-
The accents of remorse are elliptical, inarticulate.—
Sarah Beckwith,
New Yorker,
26 May 2025
Noun
-
His ability to write across the ensemble turns the family into an unforgettable organism, pulsing with sadness and regret and a small, late-breaking surge of scrappy resilience.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
7 June 2025
-
Our only regret is that it wasn’t imposed many years ago when others like Vickrey or Mayors John Lindsay or Mike Bloomberg proposed it.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
6 June 2025
Noun
-
That means having the courage to say what needs to be said—without blame, without shame and always with the intention to help.—
Jaide Massin,
Forbes.com,
3 June 2025
-
But when the nights are long and your world has shattered, just having something to talk to without shame or fear, can be the difference between falling apart and holding on.—
Thomas Westerholm,
MSNBC Newsweek,
2 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-reproach.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-reproach. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.
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