Word of the day · 3 June 2026
narcissist
/ˈnɑːsɪsɪst/
noun
A person who shows excessive self-focus, a hunger for admiration and little regard for others’ feelings; also used loosely for someone who seems vain.
In a sentence
- Colleagues called him a narcissist after every meeting became a story about his wins.
- Not every selfie habit makes someone a narcissist.
- The profile sketched a classic narcissist: charm first, empathy second.
In an image
Origin
From Narcissus in Greek myth, who fell in love with his own reflection; English formed narcissist via narcissism in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
History
Psychology kept narcissism as a trait and, in some diagnoses, a personality pattern marked by grandiosity and fragile self-worth. Online English widened the word: people call a self-centered partner or boss a narcissist without a clinical exam. The looser use still tracks the myth’s idea of self as the main mirror. Readers look it up when they want the boundary between vanity and a deeper pattern.
Nearby words
egotist · vanity · grandiosity
A clinical label that spilled into everyday talk about ego and empathy.