self-congratulation

[ self-kuhn-grach-uh-ley-shuhn, or, often, -graj-, -kuhng-, self- ]

noun

1. the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.

self-congratulation

noun

1. the state or an instance of congratulating or being pleased with oneself

Other Words From

• self-con·grat·u·la·to·ry [self, -k, uh, n-, grach, -, uh, -l, uh, -tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, -, graj, -, -k, uh, ng-, self-], adjective
• self-con·gratu·lating adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-congratulation¹

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

We evaluate that rhetoric through a dense thicket of perceived context and self-congratulation, either by how we claim it makes us feel or by our semi-informed guesses about how it makes other imagined listeners feel, those of course less savvy and more easily swayed than ourselves.

From Salon

That view prefers to fast-forward to triumphalism and self-congratulation rather than acknowledge the truth behind it: We have been here all along.

From Los Angeles Times

In the primary’s final days, New Hampshire Democrats who are supporting Mr. Biden engaged in a bit of self-congratulation while dismissing Mr. Phillips as a nonentity.

From New York Times

No levelheaded person should expect these entities to inject legitimacy into this black hole of self-congratulation.

From Salon

At Biden's February State of the Union speech in Congress, Milley's face was a study in gravity, a rock in a sea of misplaced self-congratulation and ignorance of the real world beyond the circus tent, where the West's incoherent war strategy was not only sacrificing Ukrainian lives every day but flirting with nuclear war.

From Salon