self-effacing
"self-effacing" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“self-effacing” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Shy, extremely humble and modest; making oneself seem unnoticeable.
Corpus desk
Index EN-self-effacing · self-effacing · English
self-effacing · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | self-effacing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “self-effacing” in English
Rare enough to double-check
self-effacing is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Shy, extremely humble and modest; making oneself seem unnoticeable.".
Zero misspellings are on record for self-effacing in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From self- + effacing. The correct English form is self-effacing, spelled S-E-L-F---E-F-F-A-C-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Shy, extremely humble and modest; making oneself seem unnoticeable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how self-effacing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Clark Kent's self-effacing behavior is to purposefully make people ignore him.
[…] When asked about this, Muldoon's self-effacing response is: “I don't think so!”
Etymology
From self- + effacing.
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.