self-awareness

noun

"self-awareness" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“self-awareness” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The state or property of being self-aware; state of being aware of oneself as an individual.

Key facts for self-awareness
PropertyValue
Headwordself-awareness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “self-awareness” sits in English frequency

self-awareness falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

self-awareness is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for self-awareness, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From self- + awareness. Also equivalent to self-aware + -ness, though attested earlier. The correct English form is self-awareness, spelled S-E-L-F---A-W-A-R-E-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state or property of being self-aware; state of being aware of oneself as an individual.
  2. 2
    A personal trait regarding someone's ability to persistently and accurately perceive their presence amongst other people, and their own knowledge and abilities.

Etymology

From self- + awareness. Also equivalent to self-aware + -ness, though attested earlier.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "self-awareness"?
"self-awareness" is spelled S-E-L-F---A-W-A-R-E-N-E-S-S.
What does "self-awareness" mean?
As a noun, "self-awareness" means: The state or property of being self-aware; state of being aware of oneself as an individual.
What is the origin of the word "self-awareness"?
From self- + awareness. Also equivalent to self-aware + -ness, though attested earlier. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “self-awareness”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-E-L-F---A-W-A-R-E-N-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list