1
as in ambitious
having a strong desire for personal advancement
a self-seeking schemer who claimed others' ideas and achievements as his own
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in selfish
overly concerned with one's own desires, needs, or interests
a self-seeking woman who could be counted on to sidetrack all conversation into a discussion of her problems
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-seeking
Adjective
-
The project goals, which were ambitious in terms of cell voltage and current density, were surpassed.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
11 Jan. 2026 -
The story follows Chalamet as Marty, an ambitious young man from New York’s Lower East Side, convinced that table tennis is his ticket to success.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
10 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Freedom and rule of law were defended last night, but dictators will try to exploit this to rationalize their selfish objectives.—
Rachel Scott,
ABC News,
3 Jan. 2026
-
Even though a lot of what happens in the book borders on the ridiculous because of the behavior of narcissistic selfish venal individuals.—
David Canfield,
HollywoodReporter,
26 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
Here, Funke talks about going bankrupt, the Netflix effect, and why aspiring chefs really should go to business school first.—
Eric Ryan,
Forbes.com,
20 Jan. 2026
-
The aspiring pediatrician hopes to write more poems.—
Jessica Ma,
Dallas Morning News,
16 Jan. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Self-seeking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-seeking. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
