Meaning & use
self-justifying
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Seeming to prove that your own actions or beliefs are right, without needing outside evidence.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a self-justifying excuse. It is not usually used after a verb like 'be'.
Patterns
- a self-justifying excuse
- a self-justifying argument
- self-justifying behavior
His self-justifying explanation only made the committee trust him less.
She wrote a self-justifying memo that blamed everyone but herself.
The report was full of self-justifying claims with no real evidence.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Of a statement or theory: proving its own truth by the way it is stated, so it cannot be checked fairly.
Grammar: Used mainly in academic or critical writing before a noun: a self-justifying theory.
Patterns
- a self-justifying theory
- a self-justifying claim
The theory is self-justifying: any failure is explained away as proof that the theory works.
Critics called the definition self-justifying and impossible to test.
Common combinations
- self-justifying excuse
- He gave a self-justifying excuse for arriving late again.
- self-justifying argument
- Her self-justifying argument convinced no one in the room.
- self-justifying behavior
- The therapist noticed a pattern of self-justifying behavior.
- highly self-justifying
- The letter was highly self-justifying and full of blame.
Synonyms and how they differ
- defensive
- Defensive describes a person who feels attacked; self-justifying describes the words or reasons that try to prove the person right.
- self-serving
- Self-serving means done mainly for your own benefit; self-justifying means done to show you were right.
Opposites
Word family
- self-justification noun
- The act of proving or trying to prove that you were right.
- justify verb
- To give a good reason for something.
Commonly confused: self-justifying or justifiable?
self-justifying vs justifiable
Justifiable means able to be shown as right or reasonable; self-justifying means seeming to prove itself right, often without good evidence.
Practice
The company's report was so ______ that it blamed customers for every problem the company caused.
Choose one answer.
'Self-justifying' describes something that seems to prove itself right, which fits the report's blaming tone. 'Justified' would mean the blame was actually reasonable, the opposite of the intended criticism.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-justifying”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.