noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Action that sacrifices one's own benefit for the good of others. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others wordnet
3. 3
   the act of denying yourself; controlling your impulses wordnet
4. 4
   the trait of practicing self discipline wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

self-abnegationabnegationabnegationabstainingabstemiousnessabstention

Example

More examples

"Denial of self is not the same as self-denial."

Etymology

From self- + denial.

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