Self-segment

//ˌsɛlf sɛɡˈmɛnt// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To choose a product or service on the basis of factors such as quality and price, rather than because of targeted marketing.

    "Internet business is much more a form of supply marketing than of demand marketing. It is creating new segments, new needs, new attitudes and new behaviors, and customers tend to self-segment themselves to a large extent (e.g. through the way they search on the Web, the information they release on themselves, etc.)."

  2. 2
    To place oneself in a particular group, for example when responding to a survey. broadly

    "The aim of the present study was twofold. First, to empirically test a novel interviewing technique whereby the witness self-segments their memory of an event into their own discrete parameter-bound ‘topic boxes’ at the outset, before engaging in an exhaustive free recall retrieval attempt (followed by interviewer probing) within the parameters of each topic box in turn. […] The WAFA method enables witnesses to impose an individual parameter-bound structure to their recall by self-segmenting the to-be-remembered event at the outset, before then freely recalling everything they can remember, following which they respond to interviewer prompts within each of these segments."

  3. 3
    To cause a thing to acquire appropriate size by a planned process.

    "As the solution becomes more concentrated, in reality this least solvated block will begin to experience increased self-segment interaction in order to decrease the less preferred polymer–solvent interactions, while minimizing contact with the remaining two blocks."

Example

More examples

"Internet business is much more a form of supply marketing than of demand marketing. It is creating new segments, new needs, new attitudes and new behaviors, and customers tend to self-segment themselves to a large extent (e.g. through the way they search on the Web, the information they release on themselves, etc.)."

Etymology

From self- + segment.

Related phrases

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