Myself
//maɪˈsɛlf// pron
pron ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Pronoun
- 1 Me, as direct or indirect object the speaker as the object of a verb or preposition, when the speaker is also the subject. pronoun, reflexive
"I taught myself."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of myself used when speaking as God or another important figure who is understood from context. alt-of
- 3 Personally, for my part; used in apposition to I, sometimes for simple emphasis and sometimes with implicit exclusion of any others performing the activity described.
"I myself have witnessed the event."
- 4 In my normal state of body or mind.
"I feel like myself."
- 5 Me, as the object of a verb or preposition without a reflexive trigger. Sometimes used for intensifying the pronoun of oneself. proscribed
"Give the ball to John or myself."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 I (as the subject of a verb). archaic, proscribed
"My wife and myself want to go on vacation."
- 7 my name is... India, Pakistan, nonstandard
"Myself John."
Example
More examples"I'd be unhappy, but I wouldn't kill myself."
Etymology
From Middle English myself, meself, from Old English mē selfum and similar phrases, equivalent to me + self, later partly reinterpreted as my + self / -self. Cognate with Scots mysel, mysell (“myself”), West Frisian mysels (“myself”), Dutch mijzelf (“myself”), German mich selbst, mir selbst (“myself”), Norwegian Bokmål meg selv (“myself”).
Related phrases
More for "myself"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.