Definition of "self-aggrandizement" [self•-ag•gran•dize•ment]

• The act or practice of enhancing or exaggerating one's own importance, power, or reputation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Ready your TV and your stomach for an hour of smears, self-aggrandizement and, with any luck, an airing of the issues facing California: Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown meet tonight in Davis for the first of three televised debates."
• "Perhaps the public has good reason to think that the media's self-aggrandizement gets in the way of solving the country's real problems"
• "A former White House chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Sununu described Mr. Gingrich as having a penchant for "self-aggrandizement" and "off-the-cuff thinking" that "is not what you want in a commander-in-chief.""