as in independent
able to take care of oneself or itself without outside help
she had to take a higher-paying job in order to be self-supporting
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Recent Examples of self-supporting
Despite concerns that failure to be in the blue reading group in first grade dooms a child’s adult options to a career in coal mining (or worse, a lesser UC), both have been completely self-supporting (and not in the coal-mining industry) since graduating from college.
—
Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Aug. 2025
The homes' cutting-edge features are designed to feed into a self-supporting energy system that powers each neighborhood with a community battery and has the capability to operate independently during a grid outage.
—Medgina Saint-Elien, House Beautiful, 23 Mar. 2023
Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Aug. 2025
The homes' cutting-edge features are designed to feed into a self-supporting energy system that powers each neighborhood with a community battery and has the capability to operate independently during a grid outage.
—Medgina Saint-Elien, House Beautiful, 23 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-supporting
independent
Adjective
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Charter schools are overseen by independent boards, overwhelmingly, like nonprofit boards of directors that manage the oversight and then follow all or most of the same government rules related to public schools.—
Khaleda Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
17 Sep. 2025
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Employers increasingly wonder whether campuses are cultivating independent thinkers or just cautious followers.—
Sarah Hernholm,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-supporting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-supporting. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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