self-congratulatory

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-congratulatory Politicians can always find a rationalization to spend taxpayer money on an unending list of needy programs coupled with a self-congratulatory press release. Len Fasano, Hartford Courant, 8 Jan. 2025 In a night full of self-congratulation, Chu’s speech was maybe the most self-congratulatory, somehow trying to make the case that the film was saving the world and also about … radical optimism? Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 6 Jan. 2025 Beyond the lifeboat of major film festivals, which still assist a handful of buzzy international and independent films in their treacherous journey to release, such entities as the self-congratulatory, navel-gazing Oscars have seemingly abandoned the inclusion of riskier, daring films. Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 25 Dec. 2024 And the self-congratulatory swells taken in by his lies are really just projecting onto him all their neuroses and biases. Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 13 Nov. 2024 See All Example Sentences for self-congratulatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-congratulatory
Adjective
  • Clearly, McRae has made the most of those rare windows of downtime: So Close to What, out today, is her most self-assured—and best—record yet.
    Liam Hess, Vogue, 21 Feb. 2025
  • The difference is Epstein was self-assured enough to publicly admit some of his mistakes.
    Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 14 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Leithauser left Dessner’s studio confident that This Side of the Island was ready to be released.
    Frank DiGiacomo, Billboard, 10 Mar. 2025
  • Coming off the back of a 7-1 win against PSV in the Champions League, Arsenal would have felt confident beating its traditional rival United, which has continued to struggle this season.
    Ben Church, CNN, 10 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Just his demeanor, the way he was still connected with us, not really playing selfish in any way.
    Chris Biderman, Sacramento Bee, 8 Mar. 2025
  • Raq is a master manipulator who claims to value loyalty above all else, especially from her henchmen brothers Marvin (London Brown) and Lou (Malcolm Mays) and her only son, yet constantly destabilizes the three of them with selfish mind games and power plays that genuinely harm them.
    Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • But human physicians can also be overconfident in their reasoning abilities, and may wrongly ignore correct diagnoses offered by patients, non-physician health workers or AI systems.
    Paul Hsieh, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025
  • At the meeting, Hanes seemed oddly nonchalant, exuding the air of an overconfident salesman.
    David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • There’s plenty such wordplay in The Safe House, to the point that the movie can seem like a caricature of overeducated, perpetually growling Parisians shouting for social change, but too self-centered and comfortable in their bourgeois lifestyles to do anything drastic about it.
    Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Sitting on the sidelines and labeling someone else as self-centered is easy.
    Cheryl Robinson, Forbes, 16 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • In the cool interiors of this chic Parisian address though, savouring an aged Armagnac after lunch or dinner is not a pretentious throwback, but a gastronomic pleasure.
    Paul Caputo, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2025
  • The restaurant is slightly more elevated than your classic casual spot but is far from pretentious.
    Lydia Mansel, Southern Living, 25 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Maybe some person will be presumptuous enough to wonder aloud what might have influenced the plot of this book.
    Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune, 5 Feb. 2025
  • Stone sails through all this, seeing off the sneering disapproval of white America and the presumptuous demands of the Black Panthers with equal disdain, and for a time his band, the aptly named Sly and the Family Stone, become a republic within the republic.
    Damon Wise, Deadline, 24 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Phillip, Portland, Ore. A: Unlike baseball, with some of its holier-than-thou decisions with its Hall of Fame, the Basketball Hall of Fame largely looks at career on-court achievements.
    Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 18 Feb. 2025
  • The story prompted an uproar from fans of Michigan’s Big Ten opponents, who saw Harbaugh as a cheater and Michigan’s holier-than-thou image as a fraud, and urged commissioner Tony Petitti to take action.
    Austin Meek, The Athletic, 8 Aug. 2024

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Cite this Entry

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

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