"self-interest" meaning in English

See self-interest in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: self- + interest Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|self|interest}} self- + interest Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} self-interest
  1. One's personal interest or advantage, especially when pursued without regard for others. Derived forms: enlightened self-interest Related terms: self-interested, self-serving Translations (personal interest): 利己主義 (Chinese Mandarin), 利己主义 (lìjǐzhǔyì) (Chinese Mandarin), 私心 (sīxīn) (Chinese Mandarin), 自利 (zìlì) (Chinese Mandarin), egennytte [common-gender] (Danish), egeninteresse [common-gender] (Danish), selvinteresse [common-gender] (Danish), oma etu (Finnish), Eigennutz [masculine] (German), ιδιοτέλεια (idiotéleia) [feminine] (Greek), אינטרס עצמי (interes 'atsmi) [masculine] (Hebrew), egeninteresse [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), eigeninteresse [masculine] (Norwegian Bokmål), eigeninteresse [feminine] (Norwegian Nynorsk), własna korzyść [feminine] (Polish), własny interes (Polish), interesseirismo [masculine] (Portuguese), ਸ੍ਵਾਰਥ (svārath) [masculine] (Punjabi), своекоры́стие (svojekorýstije) [neuter] (Russian), egennytta [common-gender] (Swedish), egenintresse [neuter] (Swedish), öz çıkar (Turkish)

Download JSON data for self-interest meaning in English (4.5kB)

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  "etymology_text": "self- + interest",
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          "word": "enlightened self-interest"
        }
      ],
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        {
          "text": "I cannot abandon my husband for the sake of self-interest and personal gain.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 July 27, Charles Hugh Smith, There Won't Be Any Winners Because The Status Quo Is Corrupt Everywhere",
          "text": "Corruption becomes fatal when those in power are no longer able to distinguish the difference between self-interest and the national interest.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 52",
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        "One's personal interest or advantage, especially when pursued without regard for others."
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      "id": "en-self-interest-en-noun-bSZBBkUJ",
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        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "利己主義"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "lìjǐzhǔyì",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "利己主义"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "sīxīn",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "私心"
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        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zìlì",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "自利"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "egeninteresse"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "selvinteresse"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "oma etu"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Eigennutz"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "idiotéleia",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "ιδιοτέλεια"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "interes 'atsmi",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "אינטרס עצמי"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "personal interest",
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        {
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          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
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          "word": "własna korzyść"
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          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "własny interes"
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          "code": "pt",
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          "sense": "personal interest",
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          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "ਸ੍ਵਾਰਥ"
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          "roman": "svojekorýstije",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "tags": [
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          "sense": "personal interest",
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          "word": "egenintresse"
        },
        {
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "personal interest",
          "word": "öz çıkar"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-interest"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "enlightened self-interest"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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  "etymology_text": "self- + interest",
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          "ref": "2022 July 27, Charles Hugh Smith, There Won't Be Any Winners Because The Status Quo Is Corrupt Everywhere",
          "text": "Corruption becomes fatal when those in power are no longer able to distinguish the difference between self-interest and the national interest.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 52",
          "text": "Government standards of decency and honesty were quite low, and decision-makers were tainted with self-interest and corruption at the very highest level.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One's personal interest or advantage, especially when pursued without regard for others."
      ],
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    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "利己主義"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "lìjǐzhǔyì",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "利己主义"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "sīxīn",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "私心"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zìlì",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "自利"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "egennytte"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "egeninteresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "selvinteresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "oma etu"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Eigennutz"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "idiotéleia",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "ιδιοτέλεια"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "interes 'atsmi",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "אינטרס עצמי"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "egeninteresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "eigeninteresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "eigeninteresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "własna korzyść"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "własny interes"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "interesseirismo"
    },
    {
      "code": "pa",
      "lang": "Punjabi",
      "roman": "svārath",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ਸ੍ਵਾਰਥ"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "svojekorýstije",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "своекоры́стие"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "egennytta"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "egenintresse"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "personal interest",
      "word": "öz çıkar"
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-interest"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

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