Helen WuNote: The psychologist Carl Gustav Jung first introduced the terms extrovert, extroversion, introvert, and introversion in the early 1900s to describe personality types that focus a person's energy on either the inner or outer world. The terms extrovert and introvert have since become widely popularized, with extrovert often broadly used to mean "an outgoing, sociable, or talkative person."
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Jung and the Extrovert
Extrovert (sometimes spelled extravert) means basically "turned outward"—that is, toward things outside oneself. The word was coined by the eminent psychologist C. G. Jung in the early 20th century. The opposite personality type, in Jung's view, was the introvert. Extroverts seem to be favored by societies such as ours, even though introverts seem to be on average more mentally gifted. Psychologists have said that the only personality traits that can be identified in newborn infants are shyness and lack of shyness, which are fairly close to—but not really the same as—introversion and extroversion.
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Examples of extrovert in a Sentence
Joy Emeh, Health, 10 Sep. 2024
While extroverts might flourish in a more public conversation, some—like introverts—may want to quietly process their ideas.
—Nirmal Chhabria, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic, 22 Aug. 2024
While not every hire has to be an extrovert, leaders often risk losing some of their best talent when quiet wheels are not given enough grease.
—Tim Madden, Forbes, 14 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Extrovert.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extrovert. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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extrovert
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extrovert
1 of 2 nounNote: The psychologist C. G. Jung first introduced the terms extrovert, extroversion, introvert, and introversion in the early 1900s to describe personality types that focus a person's energy on either the inner or outer world. The terms extrovert and introvert have since become widely popularized with extrovert often broadly used to mean "an outgoing, sociable, or talkative person."
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