Meanings
- uncountableRule of a group of people by their own leaders as opposed to rule imposed by a foreign government or people.
Britain resumed direct control of North Ireland after just nine weeks of self-rule.
2 more examples
Only two years ago a group of Uighur dissidents were discovered in Xinjiang, planning a province-wide uprising against Chinese rule. The slogan they were using was, "We want self-rule. We don't want to be dominated."
1985, Tiziano Terzani, The Forbidden Door, Asia 2000 Ltd, pages 223-224Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned a security summit Friday that "Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow", as concerns grow that China could invade democratic, self-ruled Taiwan.
2022 June 10, “'Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow': Japan PM warns”, in France 24, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2022Synonyms: self-government
Synonyms & antonyms
nounRule of a group of people by their own leaders as opposed to rule imposed by a foreign government or people.
More synonyms by meaning
noungovernment of a political unit by its own people
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-
- Englishrule
- Englishself-rule
Translations
Danish selvstyre
- selvstyrerule of a group of people by their own leaders
Esperanto memregado
- memregadorule of a group of people by their own leaders
Finnish itsehallinto
- itsehallintorule of a group of people by their own leaders
French autoadministration
- autoadministrationrule of a group of people by their own leaders
Greek αυτοκυβέρνηση
- αυτοκυβέρνηση (aftokyvérnisi)rule of a group of people by their own leaders
Irish féinriail
- féinriailrule of a group of people by their own leaders
Punjabi ਸ੍ਵਰਾਜ
- ਸ੍ਵਰਾਜ (svrāj)rule of a group of people by their own leaders
Russian самоуправление
- самоуправление (samoupravlenije)rule of a group of people by their own leaders
Swedish självstyre
- självstyrerule of a group of people by their own leaders
Cite this entry
self-rule. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-rule
“self-rule.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-rule. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-rule,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-rule.
Source: self-rule on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.