ego

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The self, especially with a sense of self-importance.

   When every thought absorbs your attention completely, when you are so identified with the voice in your head and the emotions that accompany it that you lose yourself in every thought and every emotion, then you are totally identified with form and therefore in the grip of ego. Ego is a conglomeration of recurring thought forms and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of I, a sense of self.

2. 2
   noun

   The most central part of the mind, which mediates with one's surroundings.

   In the well adjusted person the ego is the executive of the personality and is governed by the reality principle.

3. 3
   noun

   A person's self-esteem and opinion of themselves.

   Too many gay people "come out" publicly, yet fail to achieve truly healthy egos. They "adjust" to being less than whole or integrated persons.

4. 4
   noun

   The individual from whose point of view a family tree or pedigree chart is drawn, or the reference point from whom kinship terminology is relative. (Used without the definite article the.)

   the cousin of ego on the father's side

5. 5
   noun

   (psychoanalysis) the conscious mind

6. 6
   noun

   your consciousness of your own identity

7. 7
   noun

   an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others

Etymology

From Latin ego (“I”). Chosen by Freud’s translator as a translation of his use of German Ich as a noun for this concept from the pronoun ich (“I”). Doublet of I and Ich.