Nonself

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any entity other than oneself. countable, uncountable

    "In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual."

  2. 2
    All agents and substances that are not the body's own. uncountable

    "In his classic monograph describing the clonal selection theory of the immune response, Burnet (1959) suggested that the immune system distinguishes between self (no antibody response) and nonself (antibody response)."

  3. 3
    Anatta. countable, uncountable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of nonself origin.

Synonyms

All synonyms
unselfunself

Antonyms

All antonyms
self

Example

More examples

"In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual."

Etymology

From non- + self.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.