self-deprecating
Her ambition was masked by a veneer of elegant self-deprecation.
He portrayed himself with self-deprecation even as he set about building something ambitious.
When we began the interview, he warned me, with merry self-deprecation, that he suffers from "nominal aphasia," or the inability to reproduce names.
Afterward, he said he thought the president's self-deprecation made him seem "more likable."

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Shy and modest
aw shucks
backward
bashful
bashfully
bashfulness
humility
inadequacy
inadequate
indoorsiness
indoorsy
mousy
reticence
reticently
retiring
self-conscious
self-consciously
shyness
unassuming
wallflower
withdrawn

Examples of self-deprecation

self-deprecation
He seems to understand the right balance of self-deprecation to mild insult to tell effective jokes in the workplace.
From A.V. Club
But then, as the guitars build and then explode into a wall of noise, the self-deprecation morphs into a declaration of reluctant self-love.
From The Atlantic
His candidness to the point of self-deprecation was viewed as a coping mechanism, but it was generally respected by those around him.
From ESPN
I am not laughing with you, in other words, since you seem capable of neither doubt nor self-deprecation.
From Slate Magazine
From this self-loving place of your spirit, you can continue your soul's quest toward self-improvement without self-deprecation.
From Huffington Post
It would be disconcerting if not for the morsels of self-deprecation that he often sprinkles into conversation.
From Hollywood Reporter
But sometimes one wishes for even more self-deprecation than that.
From TIME
Be skeptical and your own worst critic, without indulging in fake self-deprecation.
From Fast Company
He makes no more attempts at humor and self-deprecation; instead, his tone becomes curt and his words more adversarial.
From The Atlantic
It's all about the voice, the wit, the gentle self-deprecation, the utter lack of sanctimony.
From NPR
She recalls the moment with characteristic self-deprecation.
From Dallas Morning News
It's the bleakest kind of self-deprecation.
From A.V. Club
Leaning back in his chair, he spoke softly, pausing frequently to cough -- he had a cold -- or to chuckle, in self-deprecation, at his own philosophical eloquence.
From The New Yorker
Dependent variables were the factor scores for each of the following: self-deprecation, self-confidence, and fatalistic belief, respectively.
According to this understanding of dignity, servility and self-deprecation are moral defects.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.