self-discovery

noun

The action or process of achieving self-knowledge.

OriginEnglish discovery ← Middle English self- ← Old English self- →
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Meanings

nounself-discovery (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe action or process of achieving self-knowledge.

    The X-Men films have made an explicit connection between the mutants’ powers and pubescent self-discovery, but perhaps it’s necessary to address the last few movies’ psychosexual subtext.

    2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2016

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*swé?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
  3. Proto-Germanic*selbaz
  4. Old Englishself
  5. Old Englishself-
  6. Middle Englishself-
  7. Englishself-
  8. Englishdiscovery
  9. Englishself-discovery

From self- + discovery.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

self-discovery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discovery

MLA

“self-discovery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discovery. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-discovery,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-discovery.

Source: self-discovery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.