SELF-EVIDENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does self-evident mean? 

• SELF-EVIDENT (adjective)
  The adjective SELF-EVIDENT has 1 sense:

1. evident without proof or argument

  Familiarity information: SELF-EVIDENT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SELF-EVIDENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Evident without proof or argument

Synonyms:

axiomatic; self-evident; taken for granted

Context example:

we hold these truths to be self-evident

Similar:

obvious (easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind)

 Context examples 

Edward was, of course, immediately convinced that nothing could have been more natural than Lucy's conduct, nor more self-evident than the motive of it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

His pleasing manners and good sense were self-evident recommendations; and having never heard evil of him, it was not their way to suppose any evil could be told.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“I am convinced,” said I, “that this Reuben Hayes knows all about it. A more self-evident villain I never saw.”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To take the first example to hand, I very clearly perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted even so self-evident a thing as that.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For if, said he, with the sort of self-evident proposition which many a clearer head does not always avoid, we are too long going over the house, we shall not have time for what is to be done out of doors.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“By the way, Holmes,” I added, “I have no doubt the connection between my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to a logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would indicate it.”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Dashwood, not less watchful of what passed than her daughter, but with a mind very differently influenced, and therefore watching to very different effect, saw nothing in the Colonel's behaviour but what arose from the most simple and self-evident sensations, while in the actions and words of Marianne she persuaded herself to think that something more than gratitude already dawned.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)