self-serving
"self-serving" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“self-serving” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Showing interest only in oneself (pursuing self-interest to the exclusion of other goals).
Corpus desk
Index EN-self-serving · self-serving · English
self-serving · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-3 3 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-serving |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “self-serving” in English
Rare enough to double-check
self-serving is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Showing interest only in oneself (pursuing self-interest to the exclusion of other goals).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for self-serving in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From self- + serving. The correct English form is self-serving, spelled S-E-L-F---S-E-R-V-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Showing interest only in oneself (pursuing self-interest to the exclusion of other goals).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how self-serving appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Most of the time when people consider the question of what rules society should have for using software, the people considering it are from software companies, and they consider the question from a self-serving perspective," says Stallman, opening his speech.
Don’t assume that the connotations of authority, history, scholarship, hallowed tradition and judiciousness in the word “Academy” actually fit this self-serving club.
Etymology
From self- + serving.
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.