Meanings
- uncountableControl of oneself.
Near-synonym: willpower
1 more example
Personal reinventions fail partly for the obvious reasons: you set your goals too high; or your existing obligations at work or home get in the way; or you find (who could have imagined it?) that the unimpressive level of self-discipline you’ve demonstrated for your entire life until this moment can’t magically be tripled overnight.
2022 January 1, Oliver Burkeman, “New year, same old you! The secret to self-improvement is embracing your messy, imperfect life”, in The GuardianSynonyms: self-command, self-control, self-mastery, self-regulation, willpower · Antonyms: undisciplinedness
Synonyms & antonyms
nounControl of oneself.
More synonyms by meaning
nounthe act of denying yourself; controlling your impulses
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*swé?
- Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*selbaz
- Old Englishself
- Old Englishself-
- Middle Englishself-
- Englishself-
- Englishdiscipline
- Englishself-discipline
From self- + discipline.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan autodisciplina
- autodisciplinacontrol of oneself
Chinese Mandarin 律己, 自制
- 律己 (lǜjǐ)control of oneself
- 自制 (zìzhì)control of oneself
Finnish itsekuri
- itsekuricontrol of oneself
French autodiscipline
- autodisciplinecontrol of oneself
German Selbstdisziplin
- Selbstdisziplincontrol of oneself
Greek αυτοπειθαρχία
- αυτοπειθαρχία (aftopeitharchía)control of oneself
Hungarian önfegyelem
- önfegyelemcontrol of oneself
Irish féin-araíonacht
- féin-araíonachtcontrol of oneself
Italian autodisciplina
- autodisciplinacontrol of oneself
Japanese 克己
- 克己 (kokki)control of oneself
Latvian pašdisciplīna
- pašdisciplīnacontrol of oneself
Polish samodyscyplina
- samodyscyplinacontrol of oneself
Portuguese autodisciplina
- autodisciplinacontrol of oneself
Russian самодисципли́на
- самодисципли́на (samodisciplína)control of oneself
Spanish autodisciplina
- autodisciplinacontrol of oneself
Swedish självdisciplin
- självdisciplincontrol of oneself
Thai การมีวินัยในตนเอง
- การมีวินัยในตนเองcontrol of oneself
Ukrainian самодисциплі́на
- самодисциплі́на (samodyscyplína)control of oneself
Cite this entry
self-discipline. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discipline
“self-discipline.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discipline. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-discipline,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discipline.
Source: self-discipline on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.