Introspection
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A looking inward; specifically, the act or process of self-examination, or inspection of one's own thoughts and feelings; the cognition which the mind has of its own acts and states. countable, uncountable
"If Adam Wheeler gave it some thought, or if someone were to prompt him with the right questions, he could put words around the fact that his existence doesn't bring him any satisfaction. He would discover, on introspection, that he's nowhere close, actually, to "happy", and that there is something vast and significant missing from his life. But he doesn't give it any thought. There's a void between him and those questions."
- 2 the contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct wordnet
- 3 Clipping of type introspection. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable
Example
More examples""To answer the latter question, one possibility is that all conscious beings are the single journeys of neurotransmitters in the existential crisis of an omnipotent entity attempting introspection." "I really, really like that hypothesis, and I never found it better formulated than how you did it here.""
Etymology
From Latin intrōspectiō, noun of action (with -iō) from past-participle (intrōspectus) stem of intrōspiciō (“to look into, look at, examine, observe attentively”), from intro- (“inward”) + speciō, spiciō (“to look at”). By surface analysis, introspect + -ion.
Related phrases
More for "introspection"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.