Self-referential
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 That refers to itself or oneself.
"That is a very pleasant line, the one that we have italicized; […] Why did he [Ben Jonson] not write more such? He might answer that he did, and that his poetry was full of enjoyment. But it is not; at least not in the entirely happy, familiar, unmisgiving, self-referential, and yet not self-loving sense that we speak of."
- 2 In a literary work: referring to the author or the author's other works. specifically
"It [Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy] also has a design strictly self-referential. The author feigns, that the beatified spirit of his mistress has obtained leave to warn and purify his soul by shewing him the state of things in the next world."
Example
More examples"That is a very pleasant line, the one that we have italicized; […] Why did he [Ben Jonson] not write more such? He might answer that he did, and that his poetry was full of enjoyment. But it is not; at least not in the entirely happy, familiar, unmisgiving, self-referential, and yet not self-loving sense that we speak of."
Etymology
From self- + referential.
Related phrases
More for "self-referential"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.