"self-made man" meaning in English

See self-made man in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌsɛlfˈmeɪ̯d mæn/ [Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation], /ˌself-/ [Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation, also], /-man/ [Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation], /ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mæn/ [Australia], /ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mɛn/ [New-Zealand], /ˌsɛlfˈmed man/ [Scotland], /ˌsɛ(ː)lfˈmeːɖ ma(ː)n/ [India] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-self-made man.wav [Southern-England] Forms: self-made men [plural]
enPR: sĕlf′mād′ măn Head templates: {{en-noun|self-made men}} self-made man (plural self-made men)
  1. A man who has achieved success by his own efforts, especially from a modest background. Wikidata QID: Q7448143
    Sense id: en-self-made_man-en-noun-en:Q7448143 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 3 entries, Pages with entries
{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made-man"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Italian",
      "lang_code": "it",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made man"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made man"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "self-made men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "self-made men"
      },
      "expansion": "self-made man (plural self-made men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "self-made man"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 3 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A man who has achieved success by his own efforts, especially from a modest background."
      ],
      "id": "en-self-made_man-en-noun-en:Q7448143",
      "links": [
        [
          "has",
          "have"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ],
        [
          "effort",
          "effort"
        ],
        [
          "especially",
          "especially"
        ],
        [
          "modest",
          "modest"
        ],
        [
          "background",
          "background"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:Q7448143"
      ],
      "wikidata": [
        "Q7448143"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "sĕlf′mād′ măn"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛlfˈmeɪ̯d mæn/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌself-/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation",
        "also"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-man/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-self-made man.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d9/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d9/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mæn/",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mɛn/",
      "tags": [
        "New-Zealand"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛlfˈmed man/",
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛ(ː)lfˈmeːɖ ma(ː)n/",
      "tags": [
        "India"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-made man"
}
{
  "descendants": [
    {
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made-man"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Italian",
      "lang_code": "it",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made man"
    },
    {
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "raw_tags": [
        "borrowed"
      ],
      "word": "self-made man"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "self-made men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "self-made men"
      },
      "expansion": "self-made man (plural self-made men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "self-made man"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Pages with 3 entries",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A man who has achieved success by his own efforts, especially from a modest background."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "has",
          "have"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "success",
          "success"
        ],
        [
          "effort",
          "effort"
        ],
        [
          "especially",
          "especially"
        ],
        [
          "modest",
          "modest"
        ],
        [
          "background",
          "background"
        ]
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:Q7448143"
      ],
      "wikidata": [
        "Q7448143"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "sĕlf′mād′ măn"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛlfˈmeɪ̯d mæn/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌself-/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation",
        "also"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-man/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American",
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-self-made man.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d9/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d9/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-self-made_man.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mæn/",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌselfˈmæɪ̯d mɛn/",
      "tags": [
        "New-Zealand"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛlfˈmed man/",
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌsɛ(ː)lfˈmeːɖ ma(ː)n/",
      "tags": [
        "India"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "self-made man"
}

Download raw JSONL data for self-made man meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). 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.