self-evident

English

Etymology

From self- +‎ evident.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

  (file)

Adjective

self-evident (not comparable)

1. Obviously true, and requiring no proof, argument or explanation.
   • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America:

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     Who were these people who took refuge behind a few honoured but misguided names? What right had they to expect serious men of science to suspend their labours in order to waste time in examining their wild surmises? Some things were self-evident and did not require proof.

   • 1999, Bertrand Russell, Charles R. Pigden, Russell on Ethics‎^[1]:

     Can we then find axioms as self-evident as those of Arithmetic, on which we can build as on a sure foundation, which could be shaken only by a scepticism which should attack the whole fabric of our knowledge?

   • 2000, “Family Happiness”, in The Coroner's Gambit, performed by Mountain Goats:

     I guess I'm supposed to figure these things out
     Or maybe it's supposed to be self-evident

   • 2023 August 23, Anthony Lambert, “Expanding the family and disabled markets”, in RAIL, number 990, page 53:

     Although the starting point of this article was the '70 years before all stations are made accessible' headline, it is self-evident that many of the requirements for disabled people will also make the railway a more welcoming place for families and the elderly.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:obvious

Related terms

• self-evidence

Translations

obviously true

• Bulgarian: очевиден (bg) (očeviden)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不言而喻 (zh) (bùyán'éryù), 不言自明 (zh) (bùyánzìmíng), 顯然／显然 (zh) (xiǎnrán)

• Czech: samozřejmý (cs)
• Dutch: vanzelfsprekend (nl)
• Esperanto: memkomprenebla
• Estonian: enesestmõistetav
• Finnish: itsestään selvä
• French: l’évidence même
• Georgian: აშკარა (ašḳara), ნათელი (nateli), ცხადი (cxadi), თავისთავად ცხადი (tavistavad cxadi), უდავო (udavo)
• German: selbstverständlich (de)
• Greek: αυταπόδεικτος (el) (aftapódeiktos), αυτονόητος (el) (aftonóitos)
• Hungarian: magától értetődő (hu)
• Icelandic: sjálfgefinn, sjálfsagður (is)
• Italian: evidente (it), lapalissiano (it), ovvio (it)
• Japanese: 自明の (ja) (じめいの, jimei no)
• Polish: zrozumiały sam przez się (pl)
• Portuguese: autoevidente, óbvio (pt)
• Romanian: de la sine înțeles, de la sine evident
• Russian: самоочеви́дный (ru) (samoočevídnyj), само́ собо́й разуме́ющийся (ru) (samó sobój razuméjuščijsja), очеви́дный (ru) (očevídnyj)
• Spanish: autoevidente, lógico (es), evidente (es)
• Swedish: självklar (sv)

Anagrams

• field events