Meaning & use
soul-searching
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Meanings
noununcountable
Honest and careful thought about your own feelings, reasons and beliefs, especially when facing a hard choice.
Grammar: Uncountable: after much soul-searching, not 'a soul-searching'.
Patterns
- after some soul-searching
- a period of soul-searching
After weeks of soul-searching, she decided to leave her job.
The scandal led to a lot of soul-searching in the team.
He needed some serious soul-searching before he could forgive his brother.
adjectivebefore a noun
Marked by deep and honest examination of one's own motives or beliefs.
Grammar: Used before a noun: a soul-searching conversation.
Patterns
- a soul-searching conversation
They had a long, soul-searching talk about their future.
The film is a soul-searching look at what makes a good life.
It was a soul-searching moment for the whole company.
Common combinations
- much soul-searching
- After much soul-searching, he told the truth.
- serious soul-searching
- The defeat prompted serious soul-searching among the party.
- a period of soul-searching
- The star took a period of soul-searching before she returned.
- engage in soul-searching
- The school had to engage in soul-searching after the report came out.
- agonizing soul-searching
- Agonizing soul-searching came before her decision to move abroad.
Synonyms and how they differ
- introspection
- Introspection is the general habit of examining your own mind and sounds more clinical, whereas soul-searching suggests anxiety about a particular decision.
- self-examination
- Self-examination is neutral and can be calm, while soul-searching implies struggle.
- reflection
- Reflection can be casual and pleasant, but soul-searching is intense and often painful.
- rumination
- Rumination suggests going over the same thoughts again and again, and does not necessarily lead to honest insight.
Opposites
Word family
- soul noun
- the inner self or spirit of a person
- search verb
- to look carefully for something
- soul-search verb
- to examine your own feelings and beliefs honestly
- introspective adjective
- inclined to examine your own thoughts
Practice
After a lot of ___, Tom decided he did not really want to be a lawyer.
Choose one answer.
Soul-searching means honestly examining your own feelings before a decision. Hair-splitting is arguing about tiny differences, and name-dropping is mentioning famous people.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “soul-searching”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.