as in sadness
disapproving
a feeling of pity for yourself because you believe you have suffered more than is fair or reasonable
He was wallowing in self-pity. She spoke without a trace of self-pity.
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Recent Examples of self-pity
Because what's the legacy of your mother was killed by your father, who then, in a fit of self-pity and fear, killed himself?
—
Julia Bonavita, FOXNews.com, 3 Aug. 2025
The question felt more confrontational than self-pitying.
—Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
Pixar has never hesitated to show childhood tumult before, or to explore the feelings that might lead someone to act out, but Elio’s combination of mourning and self-pity are a genuine challenge.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 17 June 2025
Weinstein had a self-pitying and widely covered jailhouse conversation with right-wing commentator Candace Owens in March.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 12 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for self-pity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-pity
Noun
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Emotions were on full display with many expressing sadness and frustration, not only over Wednesday's federal raid, but raids happening around the Twin Cities over the last 40 days.—
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The initial answer to that question is a no, according to some evangelical pastors and commentators who reacted with shock and sadness to Yancey’s confession.—
Noun
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Ege, a 31-year-old special education teacher, ended up reaching out to the group Families for Safe Streets, whose members showed up at their apartment shortly after Musyoka’s death to help them through those initial days and weeks of grief.—
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We’re largely left to imagine her fears for an uncertain future, her grief for an unknown, unborn child and her thoughts on becoming a symbolic figure in the outside world, with another woman’s name to boot.—
Noun
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Death, fear, and sorrow unify the disparate practices.—
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But grief will give you so much more than sorrow.—
Noun
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Coppola and production designer Ziering will explore their creative partnership, the aesthetic and emotional storytelling that defines Coppola’s visual universe — from the suburban melancholy of Palo Alto to the luminous complexity of The Last Showgirl.—
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Full of dread and melancholy, the Austrian import flips the creepy-kid script a bit by centering on two boys (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) who wonder whether their mom (Susanne Wuest), whose head is wrapped in bandages after facial surgery, is actually their mom. 38.—
Noun
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Others though, like benzodiazepines, have wildly missed the mark, causing decades of unintended consequences and human misery.—
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Instead of getting used to the smells, her misery intensified with each passing day.—
Noun
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No adolescent defiance or child’s anguish was visible on his face now.—
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Some critics called for more editorial discipline in the film, or found Lawrence’s onscreen spin cycle of anguish, which involves literally clawing her way up walls or flinging herself through glass doors, to be repetitive.—
Noun
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The dramatic arc of the film’s first half — filled with the ecstasy of God’s embrace and the agony of imprisonment — is told through musical numbers, adapted from the Shakers’ ecstatic worship, dance, hymns, and music (watch the video above to learn more).—
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One year before Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire published their compendium of Greek myths, Cicellis released her second work of fiction, The Way to Colonos, which ruthlessly dramatizes the limits of individual freedom and the agony of facing one’s powerlessness.—
Noun
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Why, then, the unrelenting economic gloom?—
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But despite all the gloom, there are reasons for optimism.—
Cite this Entry
“Self-pity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-pity. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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