Self-determination
//ˌsɛlfdɪˌtɜː(ɹ)mɪˈneɪʃən// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The ability or human right to make one's own decisions without interference from others uncountable
- 2 determination of one's own fate or course of action without compulsion wordnet
- 3 The political independence of a people uncountable
"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has categorically ruled out any new negotiations saying the future of the Falklands can only be decided by the islanders themselves in accordance with the UN principle of self-determination."
- 4 government of a political unit by its own people wordnet
- 5 self-determination of peoples: the collective right to determine its own destiny in the international order, to choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development, the right to establish a state uncountable
Example
More examples"The great Kabyle singer Matoub Lounès criticized the dictatorship and even dared to criticize Islam. But when he dared to speak of the right of peoples to self-determination, and thus to the Kabyle people to have their state, he was assassinated by Algerian authorities."
Etymology
From self- + determination.
More for "self-determination"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.