oneself

English

Etymology

A contracted form of one's self (Mid-16th century). Equivalent to one + -selfCategory:English terms suffixed with -self#ONESELF.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

oneself (reflexive form of the indefinite personal pronoun one, formerly sometimes two words: one's self)Category:English lemmas#ONESELFCategory:English pronouns#ONESELFCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ONESELFCategory:Pages with entries#ONESELFCategory:Pages with 1 entry#ONESELF

  1. A person's self: general form of himself, herself, themself or yourself.
    Teaching oneself to swim can be dangerous.Category:English terms with usage examples#ONESELF
    • 2025 April 28, Madeline Holcombe, “It might be time to ‘reparent’ yourself. Here’s how to get started”, in CNN:
      If attending to your childhood wounds and responding with kindness feels selfish, it is important to remember that compassion for oneself often makes people more compassionate to others, Lev said.
      Category:English terms with quotations#ONESELF

Usage notes

This pronoun can be used for emphasis or to make a verb reflexive.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

personal pronounpossessive
pronoun
possessive
determiner
subjective objective reflexive
first
person
singular I
me (colloquial)
memyself
me
mysen
minemy
mine (before vowels, archaic)
me
plural weusourselves
ourself
oursen
ours
ourn (obsolete outside dialects)
our
second
person
singular standard
(historically
formal)
youyouyourself
yoursen
yours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
your
archaic
(historically
informal)
thoutheethyself
theeself
thysen
thinethy
thine (before vowels)
plural standard you
ye (archaic)
youyourselvesyours
yourn (obsolete outside dialects)
your
colloquial you all
y'all
you guys
yous
you all
y'all
you guys
yous
y'allselvesall yours
y'all's
you guys'
your guys'
all your
y'all's
your all's (nonstandard)
you guys'
your guys'
informal /
dialectal
(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third
person
singular masculine hehimhimself
hisself (archaic)
hissen
his
hisn (obsolete outside dialects)
his
feminine sheherherself
hersen
hers
hern (obsolete outside dialects)
her
neuter it
hit
it
hit
itself
hitself
its
his (archaic)
its
his (archaic)
hits
genderless1 theythemthemself, themselvestheirstheir
nonspecific
(formal)
oneoneoneselfone's
plural theythem
hem, 'em
themselves
theirsen
theirs
theirn (obsolete outside dialects)
their
Category:English third person pronouns#ONESELF
Category:English 2-syllable words Category:English lemmas Category:English links with manual fragments Category:English links with redundant wikilinks Category:English pronouns Category:English terms suffixed with -self Category:English terms with IPA pronunciation Category:English terms with audio pronunciation Category:English terms with quotations Category:English terms with usage examples Category:English third person pronouns Category:Entries with translation boxes Category:Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations Category:Pages with 1 entry Category:Pages with entries Category:Requests for review of Turkish translations Category:Rhymes:English/ɛlf Category:Rhymes:English/ɛlf/2 syllables Category:Terms with Arabic translations Category:Terms with Cantonese translations Category:Terms with Catalan translations Category:Terms with Dutch translations Category:Terms with Eastern Mari translations Category:Terms with Esperanto translations Category:Terms with Finnish translations Category:Terms with French translations Category:Terms with Galician translations Category:Terms with German translations Category:Terms with Hindi translations Category:Terms with Hokkien translations Category:Terms with Hungarian translations Category:Terms with Italian translations Category:Terms with Japanese translations Category:Terms with Korean translations Category:Terms with Lower Sorbian translations Category:Terms with Mandarin translations Category:Terms with Mauritian Creole translations Category:Terms with Persian translations Category:Terms with Polish translations Category:Terms with Portuguese translations Category:Terms with Quechua translations Category:Terms with Russian translations Category:Terms with Sanskrit translations Category:Terms with Spanish translations Category:Terms with Swedish translations Category:Terms with Tamil translations Category:Terms with Telugu translations Category:Terms with Thai translations Category:Terms with Turkish translations Category:Terms with Unami translations Category:Terms with Urdu translations Category:Terms with Vietnamese translations Category:Urdu terms with non-redundant manual transliterations