false humility
Insincere self-deprecation act
False humility is modesty that conceals pride—a performance of self-deprecation that actually seeks praise or attention.
Someone displaying false humility might dismiss their accomplishments while fishing for compliments, or ostentatiously refuse credit they clearly want: His "oh, it was nothing" was false humility—he'd been angling for recognition all week.
The phrase often describes people who downplay success in ways that paradoxically highlight it.
- modestyAbsence of vanity
- self-deprecationBelittling oneself deliberately
- fishingCatching aquatic creatures
- complimentsExpressions of admiration
- insincereFeigning belief or feeling
coy · pretense · meek · undeserving · deflecting · praise · virtue-signaling · sanctimonious · pious · affected · disingenuous · performative · bashful · unworthy · martyr · doormat · sycophant · obsequious
- fake emotionscrocodile tears, fake smile, feigned interest, feigned surprise, forced laugh
- hypocrisyhypocrisy, hypocrite, sanctimony, two-faced, self-righteousness
- self-deceptiondenial, delusion, wishful thinking, rationalization, willful blindness
false humilityunpretentious
Lacking false superiority
unaffected · guileless · self-aware · straightforwardness · candor
false humilitybragging
Excessive self-praise
boasting · arrogance · self-aggrandizement · hubris · vanity
false humilitymeekness
Gentle, unassertive disposition
unpretentiousness · self-awareness · groundedness · honesty · integrity
false, falsely, falseness, falsify, falsification, falsity, falsifier, humble, humility