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Glite Dictionary
self-supporting

self-supporting

3 3.9
Has enough money to live without help from others
  • adjective
  • /ˌsɛlf səˈpɔrtɪŋ/
: autosuficiente
  • She started her own business and became self-supporting within a year.
  • become self-supporting
  • partially self-supporting
  • self-supporting students

I was self supporting, running my own business, but I wasn't happy.

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Examples

  • Mrs. Nakaya found a job in a home for the elderly in Yamaguchi, and she began a self-supporting life.

    Academic text (1990)

  • After the grant period, the New Horizons Band will continue as a self-supporting offering of Eastman's Community Education Division.

    Academic text (1992)

  • I was self supporting, running my own business, but I wasn't happy.

    Mulligan Brothers Interviews

  • I was successful, I was self supporting, running my own business, but I wasn't happy.

  • In a word, it's a self-supporting economy.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Many universities offer self-supporting English language programs throughout the U.S. and in other parts of the world.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Neither the employment programs nor the work requirements for mothers proved effective in moving people into self-supporting jobs.

    Academic text (1995)

  • I debated between going to beauty school and college because I knew I wanted to be self-supporting.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The network has been funded for a two-year period, after which it is expected to be self-supporting.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Fee increases for students without bachelor's degrees were particularly difficult for self-supporting students, many of whom were low-income and minority students.

    Academic text (2003)

Synonyms

self-sufficient
vsself-supporting
38 3.9

Can live without help from other people

is limited to financial independence rather than general provision for needs
self-contained
vsself-supporting
25 4.3

Complete and independent without needing anything else to work

is narrowed to financial independence rather than full operational autonomy
self-sustaining
vsself-supporting
17 5.7

Able to keep working without help from others

is focused on paying personal living costs rather than ongoing system maintenance
self-sustained
vsself-supporting
15 5.3

Able to continue to work or live without help from others

is specifically about meeting personal financial needs rather than mere functioning
self-reliant
vsself-supporting
14 4.5

Able to act and decide without help from others

is about paying living costs rather than relying mainly on inner skills
unassisted
vsself-supporting
8 3.9

Without help from anyone else

is specifically about long-term ability to pay living costs rather than brief lack of help
self-sufficing
vsself-supporting
  • Archaic
1 7.4

Able to provide for yourself without help from others

is specifically about covering living expenses without help from others
on one's own two feet
vsself-supporting
  • Informal
4.2

Able to live and support yourself without help from others

is narrowly about covering living expenses without help from others

Antonyms

subsidized
  • US
40 4.1

The government partly pays for it to make it cheaper for people

dependent
31 3.7

A person who relies on someone else for money or support

How Independent

independent
879 2.3
self-supporting
3 3.9
dependent
207 2.8
supported
76 2.0

Surface Forms

self-supporting positive

Morphology

self-supporting = self + support (transparent) = self + support + ing

The components 'self' + 'support' with the participial '-ing' clearly yield 'supporting oneself', a directly derivable meaning.

Etymology

Self-supporting is made from self ('oneself') and support ('to hold up' or 'help'). So it means 'holding yourself up', which is why a self-supporting person can pay their own bills and live without help from others.