What does "self-proclaimed" mean?

Announced by oneself, usually without recognition by others.

Self-proclaimed

Q: What is a synonym for "self-proclaimed"?

Common synonyms include: self-appointed, self-ordained, self-professed, self-styled, soi-disant, tryhard.

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Announced by oneself, usually without recognition by others. not-comparable
"He was self-proclaimed king of the mountain. Since it was a mountain of garbage, nobody else wanted the title anyway."

Adjective

1
proclaimed to be or described as such by oneself, without endorsement by others wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

self-appointed self-ordained self-professed self-styled soi-disant tryhard

Example

More examples

"A self-proclaimed democrat, who is lucky enough to live in a democratic country, but who constantly swears at politicians without committing himself to politics, has probably not understood the word "democracy"."

Etymology

From self- + proclaimed.

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