self-promote

verb

To promote oneself; to present oneself to others in a favorable light.

Meanings

verbself-promote (third-person singular simple present self-promotes, present participle self-promoting, simple past and past participle self-promoted)

present singular third person self-promotes · participle present self-promoting · participle past self-promoted · past self-promoted

  1. transitiveTo promote oneself; to present oneself to others in a favorable light.

    If we narrow our focus to "bad" office politics, the kind that subverts an organization or undermines the work of people, the self-promoting plotting that others do, then yes, there are things that can be done.

    1998, IEEE-USA, The Balanced Engineer: Essential Ideas for Career Development, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 82
    2 more examples

    Back in the centre of the universe – Toronto, the 'vortex' of all known Canadian culture, most of the gigs were self-promoted, presented in the unused basement room of a hotel or the back room of a hip café.

    2011, William (Bill) E. Smith, Bill Smith, Rant & Dawdle: The Fictional Memoir of Colston Willmott, Charivari Press, →ISBN, page 285

    But if influencers can't help but self-promote, even in the cringiest of times, perhaps it's a little better that they now are also actually raising money? Hey, I'm not saying this "chaotic good" scenario is, well, good. But it exists. And it's not the worst thing that's ever happened.

    2020 October 1, Tanya Chen, “I Roughly Calculated The Cost Of This Lifestyle Blogger's Beautiful, Outrageous Master Bathroom Decor”, in BuzzFeed News, archived from the original on 30 May 2023

Synonyms & antonyms

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. Proto-Indo-European*per-der.?
  9. Proto-Indo-European*pér
  10. Proto-Indo-European*pró
  11. Proto-Indo-European*pro-
  12. Proto-Italic*pro-
  13. Latinprō-
  14. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)ewh₁-
  15. Proto-Indo-European*m(y)owh₁éyeti
  16. Proto-Italic*moweō
  17. Latinmoveō
  18. Latinprōmoveō
  19. Late Latinprōmotiō
  20. Old Frenchpromocion
  21. Englishpromotion
  22. Englishself-promotionbf.
  23. Englishself-promote

Back-formation from self-promotion, equivalent to self- + promote.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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