Self-effacement

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of keeping oneself in the background, as in humility. uncountable, usually

    "John likes to remain unnoticed and does so naturally through the self-effacement found in his personality."

  2. 2
    withdrawing into the background; making yourself inconspicuous wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
altruismcommitmentconsecrationdedicationdevotiondiffidence

Example

More examples

"John likes to remain unnoticed and does so naturally through the self-effacement found in his personality."

Etymology

From self- + effacement.

Related phrases

self-effacingself-effacinglyself-effacingness

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