French word

ego

Pronunciation

IPA/ego/

Meaning

  • masculine nounego

Example

Ne sous-estime pas ton ego quand tu prends une décision importante.

Don't underestimate your ego when you make an important decision.

Illustration for ego (ego)

More examples

Pour travailler en équipe, il faut parfois mettre son ego de côté.

To work as a team, you sometimes have to put your ego aside.

Core concept

A private sense of who someone is, projected outward as confidence or pride.

Common phrases

  • mettre son ego de côté

    put one's ego aside

  • contrôler son ego

    control one's ego

Similar words

orgueil: Excessive pride in one's abilities or social position.
vanité: A desire to exaggerate and display one's attractiveness or success.
amour-propre: Self-respect focused on protecting one's worth and dignity.
estime de soi: An inner assessment of how valuable one feels as a person.

Definition in French

Représentation intérieure du moi et évaluation personnelle qui peut se manifester comme confiance ou comme orgueil selon le contexte.

Word origin

Borrowed from Latin ego, meaning 'I', the French noun developed through philosophical and psychoanalytic use into a word for self-image and self-regard.

Usage tips

  • Ego is not automatically negative in French, but phrases such as un ego surdimensionné clearly suggest excessive self-importance.

Opposites

Related words

  • égocentriqueegocentricadjective
  • égomanieegomanianoun

Word lists with this word