Meanings
- Confidence in one's own righteousness, self-assurance, smugness.
The book of Job warns us against self-righteousness, since no man can justify himself to God.
2 more examples
The heroines of these plays speak out against intraracial biases, stereotyping, lynchmobs, illiteracy, poverty, promiscuity, self-righteousness, verbally abusive men, rape, and miscegenation. […] Without warning the doctor, she chokes the life out of her child in order to keep him safe from white lynchmobs.
1990, Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, “Preface”, in Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present, New York, N.Y.: Praeger Publishers, →ISBN, page xivThere was no tedious self-righteousness on the night of the gala event. The charity auction invited bids for a night out at the Windmill Club (a lapdancing venue in Soho) and a course of plastic surgery, offered as an opportunity to “Add spice to your wife”
2018 January 25, Amelia Gentleman, “Men-only clubs and menace: how the establishment maintains male power”, in The Guardian
Origin
Translations
Bulgarian самодоволство
- самодоволство (samodovolstvo)confident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Dutch zelfgenoegzaamheid, eigengerechtigheid
- zelfgenoegzaamheidconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- eigengerechtigheidconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Finnish omahyväisyys
- omahyväisyysconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
French dédain
- dédainconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
German Selbstgerechtigkeit
- Selbstgerechtigkeitconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Polish pyszałkowatość, przemądrzałość
- pyszałkowatośćconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- przemądrzałośćconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- zarozumiałośćconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Russian самодово́льство
- самодово́льство (samodovólʹstvo)confident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Spanish santurronería, fariseísmo
- santurroneríaconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- fariseísmoconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- mojigateríaconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- mojigatezconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Swedish egenrättfärdighet, självrättfärdighet
- egenrättfärdighetconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
- självrättfärdighetconfident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug
Cite this entry
self-righteousness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteousness
“self-righteousness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteousness. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-righteousness,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-righteousness.
Source: self-righteousness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.