Self-reference

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act or process of referring to itself or oneself. uncountable, usually

    "Ethologists concerned with the evolution of human behaviour have stopped short of attempting to explain the further reaches of the human mind; consciousness, self-reference, the construction of identity, and intersubjective relating."

Verb
  1. 1
    To reference itself or oneself. transitive, uncommon

Synonyms

All synonyms
autologyautoreference

Example

More examples

"Ethologists concerned with the evolution of human behaviour have stopped short of attempting to explain the further reaches of the human mind; consciousness, self-reference, the construction of identity, and intersubjective relating."

Etymology

From self- + reference.

Related phrases

self-referential

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