"self-directed" meaning in English

See self-directed in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more self-directed [comparative], most self-directed [superlative]
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé? Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *selbaz Old English self Old English self- Middle English self- English self- English directed English self-directed From self- + directed. Etymology templates: {{ety|en|:af|self-|directed|text=+|tree=1}} Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé? Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *selbaz Old English self Old English self- Middle English self- English self- English directed English self-directed [Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from", "terms" : [ { "children" : [ { "terms" : [ { "is_uncertain" : true, "children" : [ ], "lang_name" : "Proto-Indo-European", "term" : "*swé", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "ine-pro" } ], "keyword_label" : "From", "keyword" : "from" } ], "lang_name" : "Proto-Indo-European", "term" : "*selbʰ-", "status" : "inline", "lang" : "ine-pro" } ], "keyword" : "derived" } ], "lang_name" : "Proto-Germanic", "term" : "*selbaz", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "gem-pro" } ], "keyword_label" : "Inherited from", "keyword" : "inherited" } ], "lang_name" : "Old English", "term" : "self", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "ang" } ], "keyword_label" : "From", "keyword" : "from" } ], "lang_name" : "Old English", "term" : "self-", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "ang" } ], "keyword_label" : "Inherited from", "keyword" : "inherited" } ], "lang_name" : "Middle English", "term" : "self-", "status" : "inline", "lang" : "enm" } ], "keyword_label" : "Inherited from", "keyword" : "inherited" } ], "lang_name" : "English", "term" : "self-", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "en" }, { "children" : [ ], "lang_name" : "English", "term" : "directed", "status" : "missing", "lang" : "en" } ], "keyword_label" : "From", "is_group" : true, "keyword" : "affix" } ], "lang_name" : "English", "term" : "self-directed", "status" : "ok", "lang" : "en" }" data-lang="en" data-title="self-directed"> From self- + directed. Head templates: {{en-adj}} self-directed (comparative more self-directed, superlative most self-directed)
  1. Directed, independently by oneself without external control or constraint; directed for oneself.
    Sense id: en-self-directed-en-adj-OHfvVphL Categories (other): English entries referencing missing etymons, English entries with etymology texts, English entries with etymology trees, English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with self-, Pages using etymon with no ID, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Pages with etymology trees Disambiguation of English entries referencing missing etymons: 66 34 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology texts: 70 30 Disambiguation of English entries with etymology trees: 70 30 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 76 24 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with self-: 66 34 Disambiguation of Pages using etymon with no ID: 89 11 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 85 15 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with etymology trees: 90 10
  2. Directed at oneself.
    Sense id: en-self-directed-en-adj-HkDxcEcv
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: autonomous Related terms: selfdirection
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":af",
        "3": "self-",
        "4": "directed",
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      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *swé?\nProto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.\nProto-Germanic *selbaz\nOld English self\nOld English self-\nMiddle English self-\nEnglish self-\nEnglish directed\nEnglish self-directed\n[Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"is_uncertain\" : true, \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*swé\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*selbʰ-\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*selbaz\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"self\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }, { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"directed\", \"status\" : \"missing\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"self-directed\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"self-directed\">\nFrom self- + directed.",
      "name": "ety"
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  "etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *swé?\nProto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.\nProto-Germanic *selbaz\nOld English self\nOld English self-\nMiddle English self-\nEnglish self-\nEnglish directed\nEnglish self-directed\nFrom self- + directed.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more self-directed",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
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    },
    {
      "form": "most self-directed",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "self-directed (comparative more self-directed, superlative most self-directed)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
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      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "selfdirection"
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Directed, independently by oneself without external control or constraint; directed for oneself."
      ],
      "id": "en-self-directed-en-adj-OHfvVphL",
      "links": [
        [
          "independently",
          "independently"
        ],
        [
          "oneself",
          "oneself"
        ],
        [
          "external",
          "external"
        ],
        [
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          "control"
        ],
        [
          "constraint",
          "constraint"
        ]
      ]
    },
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
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              28
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1976 December 11, J. D. Sitler, David Griffiths, “Marriage: Straight Or On The Rocks?”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 9:",
          "text": "I see a lot of self-directed anger on the part of the straight wives: What's wrong with me that I can't keep this man attracted to me? What's wrong with me in the first place for attracting a gay man?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Directed at oneself."
      ],
      "id": "en-self-directed-en-adj-HkDxcEcv"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "autonomous"
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-directed"
}
{
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    "English entries referencing missing etymons",
    "English entries with etymology texts",
    "English entries with etymology trees",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
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    "English terms prefixed with self-",
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      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *swé?\nProto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.\nProto-Germanic *selbaz\nOld English self\nOld English self-\nMiddle English self-\nEnglish self-\nEnglish directed\nEnglish self-directed\n[Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"is_uncertain\" : true, \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*swé\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*selbʰ-\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*selbaz\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"self\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"self-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }, { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"directed\", \"status\" : \"missing\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"self-directed\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"self-directed\">\nFrom self- + directed.",
      "name": "ety"
    }
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  "etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *swé?\nProto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.\nProto-Germanic *selbaz\nOld English self\nOld English self-\nMiddle English self-\nEnglish self-\nEnglish directed\nEnglish self-directed\nFrom self- + directed.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more self-directed",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most self-directed",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "self-directed (comparative more self-directed, superlative most self-directed)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "selfdirection"
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  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Directed, independently by oneself without external control or constraint; directed for oneself."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "independently",
          "independently"
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        [
          "oneself",
          "oneself"
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          "ref": "1976 December 11, J. D. Sitler, David Griffiths, “Marriage: Straight Or On The Rocks?”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 9:",
          "text": "I see a lot of self-directed anger on the part of the straight wives: What's wrong with me that I can't keep this man attracted to me? What's wrong with me in the first place for attracting a gay man?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Directed at oneself."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "autonomous"
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-directed"
}

Download raw JSONL data for self-directed meaning in English (3.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (03da280 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.