self-aggrandizing

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of self-aggrandizing Today's self-aggrandizing report is little more than an industry wishlist masked as government policy. Lucien Bruggeman, ABC News, 30 July 2025 Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dipped a toe inside the city limits — a dozen miles away from the protests — to host a self-aggrandizing press conference in Westwood, only to have U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla elbow his way in and be thrown to the ground by overzealous FBI agents. Jim Newton, Mercury News, 12 July 2025 Arnett’s narration is conversational but authoritative, proud but not self-aggrandizing. Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 12 May 2025 While Musk’s often self-aggrandizing moves can be polarizing, Trump’s promotion of him as his proxy balances it out. Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 28 Mar. 2025 Admittedly, to anyone not in Chalamet’s camp at this moment, that speech might have seemed self-aggrandizing, a kind of boy-king entitlement. Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 25 Feb. 2025 Heavy handed, self-aggrandizing hype and a near certain success in doing what any other major American politician would have been afraid to do. Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Feb. 2025 When senators read from their self-aggrandizing scripts, the resemblance to play actors is incontrovertible. Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 20 Jan. 2025 Corbet recalled shooting the scene where Van Buren leads a group of party guests outside to a hillside overlook that would become the location for his institute and delivers a long speech that is somehow both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing. Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-aggrandizing
Adjective
  • These early years emphasized goofiness, offensiveness, and mocking arrogant celebrities who pushed their platforms at award shows.
    Chris Yogerst, HollywoodReporter, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The announcement was made during a backstage segment involving NXT General Manager Ava and the arrogant superstar Lexis King.
    Andrew Ravens‎, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • All but the most vainglorious architects imagine that their buildings will change in some small way after completion.
    Anthony Paletta, Curbed, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The real real thing tended to be rather different: clumsy, ad hoc, vainglorious—and secret.
    Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025
Adjective
  • And it could be accelerated by the continued rise of angry, resentful, self-glorifying nationalism in many countries.
    Michael J. Mazarr, Foreign Affairs, 6 May 2022
Adjective
  • Their music provided a suitably self-important soundtrack as Great Recession-era artisanal hipsterdom faded into the careerist hopefulness of the latter Obama years, when Everlane minimalism supplanted lumberjack plaid.
    Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2025
  • The effort was pointless and self-important and never once determined the Legislature could promote happiness by lowering the cost of living and staying out of people’s lives.
    Matt Fleming, Oc Register, 11 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Their challenge on Frankenstein was bringing to the big screen the horror-meister’s vision of egotistical scientist Victor Frankenstein and his monster as part of a diabolical experiment.
    Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Esmeralda is incompetent, egotistic, and, thanks to Impacciatore’s ace comedic timing, totally fabulous.
    Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Investing time and effort into connecting with your inner sea might seem self-centered.
    Jessica DuLong, CNN Money, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Here are some tips for making self-promotion feel less awkward and self-centered, and more authentic.
    Chelsea Tobin, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Against all odds, two narcissistic, self-promoting people can talk to each other and really can get curious and vulnerable and connect.
    Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Needless to say, all these vain, privileged, self-promoting jerks are soon going to make CW’s acquaintance, then regret it — even as vengeful Madison zeroes in on that lady’s whereabouts.
    Dennis Harvey, Variety, 7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • The kooky characters surrounding Judge Stone included the conceited prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), the imposing bailiff Bull Shannon (Richard Moll), and the idealistic public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post), each of whom had various quirks of their own.
    Dan Heching, EW.com, 28 Aug. 2025
  • This is the worst kind of football team: a conceited but objectively mediocre squad.
    Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 17 Nov. 2024

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Cite this Entry

“Self-aggrandizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-aggrandizing. Accessed 14 Sep. 2025.

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