Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Requiring no proof or explanation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Evident in itself without proof or reasoning; producing clear conviction upon a bare presentation to the mind.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Evident without proof or reasoning; producing certainty or conviction upon a bare presentation to the mind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Obviously true , and requiring noproof ,argument orexplanation
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective evident without proof or argument
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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a _self-evident truth; _ but now, when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the maxim '_a self-evident lie_.'
Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 Joseph Warren Keifer 1884
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The professors acknowledge that placing terrorist in quotation marks “may be jarring for some readers who consider the designation self-evident.”
OBAMA ZOMBIES Jason Mattera 2010
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The professors acknowledge that placing terrorist in quotation marks “may be jarring for some readers who consider the designation self-evident.”
OBAMA ZOMBIES Jason Mattera 2010
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To the extent that it does the latter, the United States does so in the name of self-evident truths that apply to the good of all men.
THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND Allan Bloom 2003
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To the extent that it does the latter, the United States does so in the name of self-evident truths that apply to the good of all men.
THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND Allan Bloom 2003
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This was especially valuable at a time when curious currencies circulated freely throughout the Mediterranean, including coins of values that were not self-evident.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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This was especially valuable at a time when curious currencies circulated freely throughout the Mediterranean, including coins of values that were not self-evident.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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A child is more likely to feel pressed by the demands of adult authority figures, conclusions that "are self-evident to anyone who was a child once himself, including any police officer or judge," she wrote.
High Court Expands Juvenile Protections Jess Bravin 2011
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Thankfully, the self-evident story "Diana death 'conspiracy' thrown out by coroner" was not an April Fool.
Media Maxine 2009
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That point may seem self-evident to you, as it does to me, but it is not self-evident to everyone.
Publishing Maxine 2009
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