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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

selfsame.

Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same; the very same; the same not only in being similar but in being identical.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈsɛlfseɪm/Received-Pronunciation/ˌsɛlfˈseɪm/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɛlfˌseɪm/General-American

  1. Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same; the very same; the same not only in being similar but in being identical.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

PIE word *swé From Middle English self sam, self same, selve same (“the very same, selfsame”) [and other forms], from self (“that specific (person mentioned), herself, himself, itself, themselves”, pronoun) (from Old English self, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”)) + sam, same (“(adjective) equal, identical; unchanging; referred to earlier, abovenamed, aforementioned; (adverb) again, repeatedly”) (from Old Norse samr (“same; agreeing, of one mind”), ultimately probably from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”)). The English word is analysable as self + same. Cognates * Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”) * Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”)

noun/ˈsɛlfseɪm/Received-Pronunciation/ˌsɛlfˈseɪm/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɛlfˌseɪm/General-American

  1. Chiefly preceded by the: precisely the same person or thing.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

PIE word *swé From Middle English self sam, self same, selve same (“the very same, selfsame”) [and other forms], from self (“that specific (person mentioned), herself, himself, itself, themselves”, pronoun) (from Old English self, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”)) + sam, same (“(adjective) equal, identical; unchanging; referred to earlier, abovenamed, aforementioned; (adverb) again, repeatedly”) (from Old Norse samr (“same; agreeing, of one mind”), ultimately probably from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one, together”)). The English word is analysable as self + same. Cognates * Danish selvsamme (“identical, selfsame”) * Old High German selbsama (“identical, selfsame”)

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.