Meanings
plural self-realizations
- countableuncountableThe fulfillment of one's own abilities or capacities; self-actualization.
We must, as a movement, address the needs of our Gay/Lesbian youth whose experience of puberty, instead of providing a joyous self-realization and affirmational discovery, plunges them into a snake pit of self-loathing.
1994 October, Harry Hay, “Focussing On NAMBLA Obscures The Issues”, in Gay Community News, page 16 - countableuncountableThe direct experience of being, in relation to one's inner nature as an unbounded creator of one's reality.
- countableuncountableA realization about oneself.
1934, comment by Abdullah Yusuf Ali on Sura 38 verse 24 of the Qur'an Judged by the highest standard of those nearest to God, the thought of self-pride and self-righteousness had to be washed off from him [King David] by his own act of self-realisation and repentance.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounthe fulfillment of your capacities
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-
- Proto-Indo-European*(H)reh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*(H)reh₁ís
- Proto-Italic*reis
- Classical Latinrēs
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Latinreālis
- Old Frenchreel
- Frenchreal
- Frenchréaliser
- Frenchréalisation
- Englishrealization
- Englishself-realization
From self- + realization.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
self-realization. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-realization
“self-realization.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-realization. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-realization,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-realization.
Source: self-realization on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.