Meaning & use
self-absorbed
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
So busy thinking about yourself and your own concerns that you pay little attention to other people.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a self-absorbed boss, he is self-absorbed.
Patterns
- be self-absorbed
- a self-absorbed person
He was too self-absorbed to notice his friend was upset.
The self-absorbed actor talked about himself all through dinner.
Teenagers are sometimes called self-absorbed, though most care deeply about others.
Word forms
| comparative | more self-absorbed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most self-absorbed |
Common combinations
- totally self-absorbed
- She is totally self-absorbed these days.
- self-absorbed person
- A self-absorbed person rarely asks questions about others.
- become self-absorbed
- He became self-absorbed after the promotion.
- self-absorbed behavior
- The self-absorbed behavior annoyed everyone.
- too self-absorbed
- He is too self-absorbed to help.
Synonyms and how they differ
- egocentric
- Egocentric is more formal and describes seeing everything from your own viewpoint, while self-absorbed stresses attention given to yourself.
- selfish
- Selfish is about acting for your own benefit, but a self-absorbed person may simply not notice others.
- narcissistic
- Narcissistic is stronger and suggests excessive vanity, sometimes in a clinical sense.
Opposites
Word family
- self-absorption noun
- the state of being too focused on yourself
- absorbed adjective
- deeply interested in something
- self-centered adjective
- caring mainly about yourself
- self-involved adjective
- a close synonym
Commonly confused: self-absorbed or introspective?
self-absorbed vs introspective
Introspective means looking thoughtfully into your own mind and is not necessarily negative, whereas self-absorbed means ignoring others.
Practice
She never asked about my trip because she was so ___ and only wanted to talk about her own plans.
Choose one answer.
Self-absorbed means preoccupied with yourself. Self-reliant is a tempting similar-looking word but means able to depend on yourself, which does not explain ignoring others.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-absorbed”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.