Meanings
- not comparableDescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted.
The prediction of poor turnout for the event was self-fulfilling: once people heard the turnout would be bad, they didn't come.
2 more examples
Whether or not we believe in astrology is irrelevant; the question is, did the Magdalenians? If so, then in a self-fulfilling prophecy they may have been organizing their lives according to a religious belief system, and not simply an economic or ecological one.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130The big question, I believe, is whether the Italian and maybe Spanish crises are the kind of thing that might be brought under control by ECB bond purchases. This is often phrased in terms of whether they are facing liquidity or solvency problems; but I think it’s better phrased in terms of the possibility of self-fulfilling crises, a la Obstfeld. […] So there is a reasonable case that what we’re seeing in Italy is a self-fulfilling crisis trying to happen, in which fear of default is precisely what leads to default.
2011 August 7, Paul Krugman, “A Self-Fulfilling Euro Crisis? (Wonkish)”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2022
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*swé?
- Proto-Indo-European*selbʰ-
- Proto-Germanic*selbaz
- Old Englishself
- Old Englishself-
- Middle Englishself-
- Englishself-
- Englishfulfilling
- Englishself-fulfilling
From self- + fulfilling.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech sebenaplňující
- sebenaplňujícídescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
Finnish itsensä toteuttava
- itsensä toteuttavadescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
French autoréalisateur
- autoréalisateurdescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
German selbsterfüllend
- selbsterfüllenddescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
Irish féin-chomhlíontach
- féin-chomhlíontachdescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
Spanish autocumplido, autorrealizado
- autocumplidodescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
- autorrealizadodescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
Swedish självuppfyllande
- självuppfyllandedescribing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted
Cite this entry
self-fulfilling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-fulfilling
“self-fulfilling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-fulfilling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-fulfilling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-fulfilling.
Source: self-fulfilling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.