self-confidence

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *swé?

Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der.

Proto-Germanic *selbaz

Old English self

Old English self-

Middle English self-

English self-

English confidence

English self-confidence

From self- + confidence.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

self-confidence (usually uncountable, plural self-confidences)

1. The state or degree of being self-confident: believing in one's own abilities.
   • 2026 February 2, “Strong Women - The Fight for Self-Determination”, in Deutsche Welle‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 May 2026‎^[2]:

     Standing up for themselves is often difficult for girls from male-dominated cultures. Take Bahareh Husseini. She fled Iran and now lives in the German city of Düsseldorf. She wanted to study and be able determine her own path in life. In Germany, she found support at Diakonie, a Protestant social welfare organization. There, Jessica te Heesen heads the JUMP project, which helps refugee girls develop self-confidence, assert themselves, and find their way in school and at work. Bahareh is now studying medical physics — and passing on her experiences to others.

Synonyms

• self-assurance

Antonyms

• self-doubt

Translations

state of being self-confident

• Bulgarian: самоувереност (bg) f (samouverenost)
• Catalan: autoconfiança f, confiança en si mateix f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 自信 (zh) (zìxìn), 自信心 (zh) (zìxìnxīn)

• Czech: sebedůvěra f, sebevědomí (cs) n
• Danish: selvtillid c
• Dutch: zelfvertrouwen (nl), zelfverzekerdheid (nl)
• Esperanto: memcerteco
• Finnish: itseluottamus (fi)
• French: confiance en soi (fr) f
• German: Selbstvertrauen (de) n
• Greek: αυτοπεποίθηση (el) f (aftopepoíthisi)
• Hindi: आत्मविश्वास (hi) m (ātmaviśvās)
• Hungarian: önbizalom (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfsöryggi (is) n, sjálfstraust (is) n
• Irish: féinmhuinín f
• Italian: fiducia in sé stesso f
• Japanese: 自信 (ja) (じしん, jishin)
• Luxembourgish: Selbstvertrauen n
• Malay: keyakinan diri
• Malayalam: ആത്മവിശ്വാസം (ml) (ātmaviśvāsaṁ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selvtillit (no) m or f, sjøltillit m

  Nynorsk: sjølvtillit m or f

• Polish: kontenans (pl) m, kuraż (pl) m, rezon (pl) m
• Portuguese: autoconfiança (pt) f
• Romanian: siguranță de sine f
• Russian: самоуве́ренность (ru) f (samouvérennostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: samopouzdánje (sh) n, samopòuzdānōst (sh) f
• Spanish: autoconfianza (es) f, desparpajo (es), desenvoltura (es)
• Swedish: självförtroende (sv) n
• Tagalog: kumpiyansa sa sarili
• Tamil: தன்னம்பிக்கை (ta) (taṉṉampikkai)

measure of one's belief in one's own abilities

• Arabic: ثِقَة بِالنَّفْس f (ṯiqa(t) bi-n-nafs)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: zelfvertrouwen (nl), zelfverzekerdheid (nl)
• Finnish: itseluottamus (fi)
• French: confiance en soi (fr) f
• German: Selbstvertrauen (de) n
• Greek: αυτοπεποίθηση (el) f (aftopepoíthisi)
• Hindi: आत्मविश्वास (hi) m (ātmaviśvās)
• Hungarian: önbizalom (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfsöryggi (is) n, sjálfstraust (is) n
• Irish: féinmhuinín f
• Persian: خودباوری
• Polish: pewność siebie (pl) f
• Portuguese: autoconfiança (pt) f
• Russian: самоуве́ренность (ru) f (samouvérennostʹ), самонаде́янность (ru) f (samonadéjannostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: samopouzdánje (sh) n, samopòuzdānōst (sh) f
• Spanish: autoconfianza (es) f
• Tagalog: kumpiyansa sa sarili
• Tamil: தன்னம்பிக்கை (ta) (taṉṉampikkai)