Alternative forms

• it self, it selfe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#ITSELFCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#ITSELF hit-self, equivalent to it +‎ -selfCategory:English terms suffixed with -self#ITSELF.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɪtˈsɛlf/Category:English 2-syllable words#ITSELFCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ITSELF

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ITSELF
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪtˈself/Category:English 2-syllable words#ITSELFCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ITSELF
• (Northumbria) IPA^(key): /ɪtˈsɛl/Category:English 2-syllable words#ITSELFCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ITSELF
• Rhymes: -ɛlfCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛlf#ITSELFCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛlf/2 syllables#ITSELF

Pronoun

itself (the third person singular, neuter, personal pronoun, the reflexive form of it, masculine himself, feminine herself, gender-neutral themself, plural themselves)Category:English lemmas#ITSELFCategory:English pronouns#ITSELFCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ITSELFCategory:Pages with entries#ITSELFCategory:Pages with 1 entry#ITSELF

1. (reflexive pronounCategory:English reflexive pronouns#ITSELF) it; A thing as the object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject

   When the opportunity presented itself, no feasible course of action suggested itself (to us).Category:English terms with usage examples#ITSELF

   • 2014 December 2, David DiSalvo, “Are You Vulnerable to the Hipster Effect?”, in Psychology Today‎, archived from the original on 30 August 2025:

     The researchers posit that something they call the “hipster effect” asserts itself in human populations no matter how individualistic we imagine ourselves to be, because it’s individuality itself that sparks conformity.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ITSELF

2. (emphatic) it; used to intensify the subject, especially to emphasize that it is the only participant in the predicate

   The door itself is quite heavy.Category:English terms with usage examples#ITSELF

   • 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:

     Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ^hTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ITSELF

   • 1933 March 4, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 0:00:55 from the start, in Inaugural Address‎:

     So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

     (see also q:Franklin D. Roosevelt#First_Inaugural_Address_(1933))

     Category:English terms with quotations#ITSELF

   • 2014 December 2, David DiSalvo, “Are You Vulnerable to the Hipster Effect?”, in Psychology Today‎, archived from the original on 30 August 2025:

     The researchers posit that something they call the “hipster effect” asserts itself in human populations no matter how individualistic we imagine ourselves to be, because it’s individuality itself that sparks conformity.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ITSELF

3. (emphatic, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#ITSELF) it; used to refer back to an earlier subject
   • 1842, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines:

     The oil by degrees gets covered with a curdy mass, which after some time settles to the bottom, while itself becomes limpid and colorless.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ITSELF

Anagrams

• flites, elfist, filets, fistle, stifle, fliest