Meaning & use
self-effacing
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Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Keeping quiet about your own talents and successes and avoiding the spotlight, so that you seem humble.
Grammar: Can stand before a noun or after be: a self-effacing speech, she is self-effacing.
Patterns
- be self-effacing about something
The winner gave a self-effacing speech and thanked everyone but herself.
He is so self-effacing that his colleagues only learned of his award from the newspaper.
With a self-effacing laugh, she brushed off the compliment about her cooking.
Common combinations
- self-effacing humor
- His self-effacing humor made the audience warm to him at once.
- a self-effacing manner
- Despite her fame, she has a self-effacing manner that puts people at ease.
- self-effacing smile
- He gave a self-effacing smile and handed the credit to his team.
- remarkably self-effacing
- For a surgeon of his skill, he is remarkably self-effacing.
- a self-effacing person
- A self-effacing person rarely mentions their own role in a success.
Synonyms and how they differ
- modest
- Modest is the everyday word for not boasting, while self-effacing suggests actively keeping yourself out of notice or playing yourself down.
- unassuming
- Unassuming describes a quiet, ordinary manner without airs, whereas self-effacing implies a deliberate habit of minimizing yourself.
- humble
- Humble can describe a low opinion of your own importance or low social rank, while self-effacing is about behavior in front of others.
- diffident
- Diffident points to shyness and lack of confidence, but self-effacing can come from a confident person who simply avoids praise.
Opposites
Word family
- efface verb
- to wipe out or erase, as in efface a memory
- self-effacement noun
- the habit of keeping yourself in the background
- self-effacingly adverb
- in a way that plays down your own role
- effacement noun
- the act of rubbing out or wearing away
Commonly confused: self-effacing or self-deprecating?
self-effacing vs self-deprecating
Self-deprecating means running yourself down, often with jokes, and can sound negative; self-effacing mainly means avoiding attention and is usually a compliment.
Practice
Which person is best described as self-effacing?
Choose one answer.
Self-effacing means avoiding attention and giving credit to others, as the researcher does. The manager and the singer seek attention, and the student's problem is dishonesty, not modesty.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-effacing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.