Meanings
- not comparableClaimed by the recipient, as a title one gave to oneself.
This self-styled king of the hill must prove himself before the title has any worth.
3 more examples
“A more heartfelt word, notwithstanding its playfulness,” said the elder lady, “than some of those self-styled patriots, that come here to give us laws, would pronounce, I have no doubt.”
1847, Emily Chubbuck, Allen Lucas, the Self-made Man, page 152Partial results showed Hollande – a former Socialist party leader, rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal – with a clear lead at more than 28%, compared with Sarkozy on 27%.
2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the GuardianIf representation and recruitment is an objective, self-styled mavericks like Kelly and his Queensland sidekick George Christensen have some utility.
2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2022Synonyms: self-proclaimed, self-appointed, self-professed, self-ordained, soi-disant, wannabe, tryhard
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveClaimed by the recipient, as a title one gave to oneself.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveas claimed by and for yourself often without justification
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-
- Englishstyled
- Englishself-styled
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 自稱的 /自称的, 自封的
- 自稱的 /自称的 (zìchēng de)claimed by the recipient
- 自封的 (zìfēng de)claimed by the recipient
- 自詡的 /自诩的 (zìxǔ de)claimed by the recipient
- 自任的 (zìrèn de)claimed by the recipient
Finnish kotikutoinen
- kotikutoinenclaimed by the recipient
French autoproclamé, soi-disant
- autoproclaméclaimed by the recipient
- soi-disantclaimed by the recipient
German selbsternannt
- selbsternanntclaimed by the recipient
Hindi स्वघोषित
- स्वघोषित (svaghoṣit)claimed by the recipient
Spanish autoproclamado, sedicente
- autoproclamadoclaimed by the recipient
- sedicenteclaimed by the recipient
Cite this entry
self-styled. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-styled
“self-styled.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-styled. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “self-styled,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/self-styled.
Source: self-styled on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.