vanity.

1. Excessive pride in one’s appearance, achievements, or perceived importance.

2. The lack of lasting purpose, value, or effectiveness in something.

3. A furniture unit used for personal grooming, typically with a mirror.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• wounded vanity
• personal vanity

On the page

Vanity made the compliment irresistible even after he noticed its purpose.

Her vanity concerned the portrait less than the reputation it was meant to preserve.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychological / character. Forms: Usually uncountable in the first sense; countable in the indicated secondary senses. Plural vanities. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.