ego
ego Lexical Profile
ego Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person's sense of self-esteem, self-importance, or personal worth, often used to imply an inflated or overly proud view of oneself.
"The veteran director had such a fragile ego that he refused to read any critical reviews of his films."
In psychoanalytic theory, the conscious part of the psyche that mediates between the instinctual desires of the id, the moral demands of the superego, and the constraints of external reality.
"According to Freud, the ego employs various defense mechanisms to protect the conscious mind from overwhelming anxiety."
In philosophy and metaphysics, the conscious thinking subject or individual self as distinguished from the external world and other minds.
"Descartes grounded his epistemology in the undeniable existence of the thinking ego."
Word Nuance & Usage
In everyday conversation, 'ego' often carries a negative connotation of excessive pride or arrogance, whereas in psychology it is a neutral clinical term for the rational, conscious part of the mind.
• Rhymes for ego
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed directly from the Latin pronoun 'ego' (meaning 'I'), which entered English philosophical writing in the late 18th century and was later popularized in the early 20th century as the standard English translation of Sigmund Freud's German term 'das Ich' ('the I').
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.