as in vanity
an often unjustified feeling of being pleased with oneself or with one's situation or achievements
so many of the Web site's self-portraits give the impression of clueless self-satisfaction
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Recent Examples of self-satisfaction
Trump himself personifies stupidity’s essential feature — self-satisfaction, an inability to recognize the flaws in your thinking.
—
David Brooks, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025
Just as there’s no dramatic build-up to Maria landing the part, there’s no romance to the process of acting it, nor the slightest whiff of self-satisfaction in recreating iconic scenes.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 21 Mar. 2025
Corporate leaders will be called upon to overcome self-satisfaction with progress made in the advancement of gender parity for women, especially those in senior and middle management.
—Michael Peregrine, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024
Megalopolis posits a world of clueless liberal self-satisfaction, missing every point of contemporary alertness to ongoing lawfare and sedition.
—Armond White, National Review, 4 Oct. 2024
Nothing was off-limits in Mad, a newsstand stalwart that would reach peak annual sales in the 1970s of 2.5 million issues by delivering belly laughs and self-satisfaction to America’s class clowns through cartoons, parodies, sarcastic characters and an unending stream of gross-out gags.
—Patrick Sauer, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Sep. 2024
There was more than a whiff of self-satisfaction from the Kremlin on Wednesday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Mongolia at the start of the week went without a hitch — despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant hanging over the visit.
—Holly Ellyatt, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2024
The potential rewards for their work had always been self-satisfaction, a few tip-jar-sized donations, and maybe some nice emails.
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 17 May 2024
Bleakley said people can often use such cases for their own self-satisfaction, dehumanizing victims in the process.
—Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 5 Jan. 2024
David Brooks, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025
Just as there’s no dramatic build-up to Maria landing the part, there’s no romance to the process of acting it, nor the slightest whiff of self-satisfaction in recreating iconic scenes.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 21 Mar. 2025
Corporate leaders will be called upon to overcome self-satisfaction with progress made in the advancement of gender parity for women, especially those in senior and middle management.
—Michael Peregrine, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024
Megalopolis posits a world of clueless liberal self-satisfaction, missing every point of contemporary alertness to ongoing lawfare and sedition.
—Armond White, National Review, 4 Oct. 2024
Nothing was off-limits in Mad, a newsstand stalwart that would reach peak annual sales in the 1970s of 2.5 million issues by delivering belly laughs and self-satisfaction to America’s class clowns through cartoons, parodies, sarcastic characters and an unending stream of gross-out gags.
—Patrick Sauer, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Sep. 2024
There was more than a whiff of self-satisfaction from the Kremlin on Wednesday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Mongolia at the start of the week went without a hitch — despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant hanging over the visit.
—Holly Ellyatt, CNBC, 4 Sep. 2024
The potential rewards for their work had always been self-satisfaction, a few tip-jar-sized donations, and maybe some nice emails.
—Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 17 May 2024
Bleakley said people can often use such cases for their own self-satisfaction, dehumanizing victims in the process.
—Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 5 Jan. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-satisfaction
Noun
-
The Eden's bathroom is placed on the opposite side of the home to the entrance and has a toilet, a vanity sink, and a walk-in shower, plus a little more storage space.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
30 June 2025
-
Lean a framed print against the wall in the center of a wide vanity or on a shelf above the toilet.—
Dina Cheney,
Los Angeles Times,
30 June 2025
Noun
-
Our state and federal politicians must insist on order and basic due process in ICE’s performance of its duties, not the chaos and confusion inherent in playing up to Trump’s enormous ego, tiny vocabulary and constantly flip-flopping orders, statements and media posts.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
4 July 2025
-
These are the sorts of fantasies that cultivate the delicate, fledgling egos of the inexperienced, giving them enough hope, whether about their good fortune or their capacity to aestheticize bad fortune, to continue into the uncertain future.—
Book Marks
July 3,
Literary Hub,
3 July 2025
Noun
-
Meanwhile, the Pride Month display at the Stonewall National Monument excluded transgender pride flags this year, according to ABC News.—
Andrew Stanton,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 June 2025
-
Tall soldiers, the pride of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century armies—and in the case of Frederick William I of Prussia’s Potsdam Giants, a virtual fetish—became a liability on nineteenth-century battlefields.—
Matthew Wills,
JSTOR Daily,
28 June 2025
Noun
-
This silliness, the silliness of his arrogance, was actually funny to me.—
Ottessa Moshfegh,
New Yorker,
30 June 2025
-
On the dark side, however, Mercury in Leo can spark moments of arrogance and stubbornness.—
Valerie Mesa,
People.com,
26 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-satisfaction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-satisfaction. Accessed 12 Jul. 2025.
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