# itself
## English
### Alternative forms

* it self, it selfe (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English hit-self, equivalent to it +‎ -self.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA: /ɪtˈsɛlf/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian) IPA: /ɪtˈself/
* Rhymes: -ɛlf

### Pronoun

itself (the third person singular, neuter, personal pronoun, the reflexive form of it, masculine himself, feminine herself, gender-neutral themself, plural themselves)
* (reflexive pronoun) it; A thing as the object of a verb or preposition that also appears as the subject
    The door closed by itself
* (emphatic) it; used to intensify the subject, especially to emphasize that it is the only participant in the predicate
** 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and $^h$Tully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.
    The door itself is quite heavy.
* (emphatic, archaic) it; used to refer back to an earlier subject
** 1842, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines:The oil by degrees gets covered with a curdy mass, which after some time settles to the bottom, while itself becomes limpid and colorless.

#### Synonyms

* itsself (obsolete)

#### Derived terms

* a house divided against itself cannot stand
* being-for-itself
* being-in-itself
* dense-in-itself
* end in itself
* history repeats itself
* in and of itself
* in itself
* in-itselfness
* lend itself to
* of itself
* pay for itself
* repeat itself
* suggest itself
* the trash takes itself out
* thing in itself
* thing-in-itself
* write itself

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.
personal pronounpossessive pronounpossessive determiner
subjective
objective
reflexive
first personsingular
I me (colloquial)memyself me mysenminemy mine (before vowels, archaic) me
plural
weusourselves ourself oursenoursour
second personsingular
standard (historically formal)
youyouyourself yoursenyours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)your
archaic (historically informal)
thoutheethyself theeself thysenthinethy thine (before vowels)
plural
standard
you ye (archaic)youyourselvesyours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)your
colloquial
you all y'all you guysyou all y'all you guysy'allselvesy'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
informal / dialectal
(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person
singular
masculine
hehimhimself hisself (archaic) hissenhis hisn (obsolete outside dialects)his
feminine
sheherherself hersenhers hern (obsolete outside dialects)her
neuter
it hitit hititself hitselfits his (archaic)its his (archaic) hits
genderless
theythemthemself, themselvestheirstheir
nonspecific (formal)
oneoneoneself–one's
plural
theythem hem, 'emthemselves theirsentheirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)their :

### Anagrams

* flites, elfist, filets, fistle, stifle, fliest