Meaning & use
self-reliant
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Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Trusting your own abilities and judgment, and able to handle your needs and problems without leaning on other people.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a verb like be: a self-reliant child, she is very self-reliant.
Patterns
- be self-reliant
- become self-reliant in something
Living alone in a new city made her far more self-reliant than she had been at home.
The scout camp teaches children to be self-reliant by letting them plan their own meals.
He grew up in a remote village, so he was practical and self-reliant from an early age.
Word forms
| comparative | more self-reliant |
|---|---|
| superlative | most self-reliant |
Common combinations
- fiercely self-reliant
- The islanders are fiercely self-reliant and rarely ask the mainland for help.
- become self-reliant
- Teenagers need chances to make mistakes if they are to become self-reliant.
- a self-reliant person
- A self-reliant person usually tries to fix a problem before asking for advice.
- remain self-reliant
- My grandmother wants to remain self-reliant for as long as she can.
- self-reliant community
- The village built solar panels to become a self-reliant community.
Synonyms and how they differ
- independent
- Independent is wider and can mean simply free from control, whereas self-reliant stresses actually coping on your own abilities.
- self-sufficient
- Self-sufficient usually points to supplying your own material needs, such as food or energy, while self-reliant is more about confidence and personal resourcefulness.
- resourceful
- Resourceful highlights cleverness in finding solutions, and does not necessarily mean you refuse help from others.
Opposites
Word family
- self-reliance noun
- the quality of relying on your own efforts and abilities
- rely verb
- to depend on someone or something
- reliant adjective
- needing or depending on something or someone
- reliance noun
- the state of depending on someone or something
Commonly confused: self-reliant or self-sufficient?
self-reliant vs self-sufficient
Self-sufficient is about producing or providing everything you need, for example growing your own food. Self-reliant is about trusting yourself to cope.
Practice
After years of caring for her younger brothers, Mia had become remarkably ___ and rarely needed anyone's help.
Choose one answer.
Self-reliant means able to manage on your own. Self-conscious means embarrassed about how you look to others, which does not fit the idea of needing no help.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-reliant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.