Meaning & use
self-preservation
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The natural drive to protect yourself from danger and stay alive.
Grammar: Uncountable and often used with instinct: an instinct of self-preservation.
Patterns
- instinct for self-preservation
- out of self-preservation
Out of self-preservation, she stepped back from the cliff edge.
Fear is a basic part of the self-preservation instinct.
The animal's self-preservation made it flee the fire.
noununcountablefigurative
Concern for your own safety, position or interests, sometimes ahead of other people's needs.
Grammar: Used figuratively of careers or business.
Patterns
- act in self-preservation
- for reasons of self-preservation
Several officials resigned out of self-preservation before the report appeared.
The company's self-preservation led it to hide the problem.
Staying silent was an act of self-preservation at work.
Common combinations
- instinct of self-preservation
- The instinct of self-preservation made him run.
- out of self-preservation
- She lied out of self-preservation.
- strong self-preservation
- Humans have a strong sense of self-preservation.
- act of self-preservation
- Leaving early was an act of self-preservation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- survival instinct
- Survival instinct is the plain, common phrase for the natural drive to live.
- self-protection
- Self-protection is wider and may mean defending your interests, not only your life.
- self-defense
- Self-defense is protecting yourself from an attack, often in legal contexts.
- self-interest
- Self-interest means looking after your own advantage and need not involve danger.
Opposites
Word family
- preserve verb
- to keep safe or unchanged
- preservation noun
- the act of keeping something safe
- self-sacrifice noun
- giving up your own interests for others
- self-preserving adjective
- protecting oneself
Commonly confused: self-preservation or self-protection?
self-preservation vs self-protection
Self-protection is about guarding yourself, while self-preservation focuses on staying alive and on instinct.
Practice
The soldier retreated not from cowardice but from simple ___, since staying would have been certain death.
Choose one answer.
Self-preservation means the drive to stay alive. Self-sacrifice means giving up your life or interests for others, the opposite of what is described.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-preservation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.