Self-effacing

adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Shy, extremely humble and modest; making oneself seem unnoticeable.

    "Clark Kent's self-effacing behavior is to purposefully make people ignore him."

Adjective
  1. 1
    reluctant to draw attention to yourself wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
altruisticbackwardbashfulcommittedconsecratedcoy

Example

More examples

"Tom's a polite, kind, and self-effacing chap who you wouldn't hesitate to introduce to your parents."

Etymology

From self- + effacing.

Related phrases

self-effacinglyself-effacingness

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