self-serving.

Designed to benefit oneself, often while appearing principled or neutral.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• self-serving explanation
• self-serving bias

On the page

The apology sounded self-serving because it excused every decision.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Comparative more self-serving; superlative most self-serving when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, behavior. Commonness: moderately common.