Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition of being free of restraints.
- n. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
- n. Political independence.
- n. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
- n. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
- n. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
- n. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
- n. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
- n. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
- n. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
- n. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: "the seductive freedoms and excesses of the picaresque form” ( John W. Aldridge).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or character of being free.
- n. Exemption from the constraint or restraint of physical or moral forces; the state of being able to act without external controlling interference; liberty; in a special sense, exemption from bondage or imprisonment.
- n. Exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic control, especially in civil matters; independence; civil liberty.
- n. Frankness; openness; outspokenness; unrestrictedness.
- n. License; improper familiarity; in a concrete sense (with a plural), a violation of the rules of decorum; an act of bold presumption.
- n. The state of being clear or exempt (from something): as, freedom from sickness; freedom from care
- n. Ease or facility (of doing anything): as, he speaks or acts with freedom.
- n. Generosity; liberality; open-handedness.
- n. The possession of particular privileges; franchise; immunity: as, the freedom of a city or of a corporation.
- n. A free, unconditional grant; a free privilege or franchise.
- n. In mathematics, capability of displacement in space.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The state of being free, of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
- n. countable The lack of a specific constraint, or of constraints in general; a state of being free, unconstrained.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of being free; exemption from the power and control of another; liberty; independence.
- n. Privileges; franchises; immunities.
- n. Exemption from necessity, in choise and action.
- n. Ease; facility.
- n. Frankness; openness; unreservedness.
- n. Improper familiarity; violation of the rules of decorum; license.
- n. obsolete Generosity; liberality.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints
- n. immunity from an obligation or duty
Etymologies
- From Middle English freedom, fredom, from Old English frēodōm ("freedom, state of free-will, charter, emancipation, deliverance"), from Proto-Germanic *frijadōmaz (“freedom”), equivalent to free + -dom. Cognate with North Frisian fridoem ("freedom"), Dutch vrijdom ("freedom"), Low German frīdom ("freedom"), Middle High German vrītuom ("freedom"), Norwegian fridom ("freedom"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English fredom, from Old English frēodōm : frēo, free; see free + -dōm, -dom. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“You have been promised land and freedom, but the counter-revolution will profit by the anarchy called forth by the Bolsheviki, and will deprive you of land and freedom .”
“The pivot, the medium of this construction of the personality, is working in freedom, in accordance with the natural wants of the inner life; thus _freedom in intellectual work_ is found to be the _basis of internal discipline_.”
“British hens and stags pay a heavy price for the last night of freedom• Price for hen and stag nights soars to £100.25 per person • Alcohol accounts for a third of the total spend• 1 in 10 cheat on their partner during the last night of freedomBritish hen and stag revellers are paying an average of £100.25 per person to celebrate the last night of freedom, according to a new survey published today Tuesday 17 April 2007.”
“freedom of the press' they consider on a par with _freedom of Colt's revolver_.”
“It has been easy for America to endorse a policy of refusing to negotiate, especially if the terrorist—I prefer the term freedom fighter—has attacked the Rome airport or taken a British national hostage in Beirut.”
“If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion.”
“My mother lived in Berlin at the end of the war -- when she took me out of my comfort zone and the security of my home in Texas to East Berlin, I remember how frightened she was just crossing through the check points, as though they might keep her there, in that world where the word freedom and peace had lost its meaning.”
The Huffington Post: Marlise Karlin: Game Changers: Who Are the Real Leaders Today?
“The publication of such offensive and inflammatory material which has tendency to inflame minds cannot be considered to be an expression freedom of speech by any stretch of imagination in civilized society," Mr. Kumar wrote in the order.”
The Wall Street Journal: Google, Facebook Fight Indian Censorship Demands
“The intrinsic value in freedom is that it allows individuals to pursue things they find valuable.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » “Do ‘Family Values’ Weaken Families?”
“The word "freedom has meaning for me," he said, "and I will defend it at any cost.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘freedom’.
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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AFCO - fundamental rights
as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
academic freedom, access, asylum, bargaining, citizen, cloning, cohesion, collective agreement, collective bargai..., confidentiality, conflict of interest, constraint and 357 more...
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POL - What is Mitt talking about?
Key terms from Mitt Romney's election campaign
good and generous..., hard fought election, go back to work, optimistic and po..., confident in the ..., optimism, uniquely American, nation of immigrants, want a better life, life in that plac..., pursuit of the ri..., richness of this ... and 369 more...
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Places In Utah
tooele, rainbow bridge, duchene, bountiful, american fork, deseret, this is the place, temple square, orem, provo, west jordan, great salt lake and 246 more...
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One Worders
Famous one word lines from movies. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/05/the-best-one-...
rosebud, Bueller, plastics, inconceivable, Stella, freedom, Adrian, attica, khan, wolverines, toga, juicyfruit and 11 more...
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...21st century, a high level of a..., a long way, a long way to go, a lot to be done, a lot to do, achievement, action, action plan, action team, actual implementa..., advantage and 751 more...
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One word book titles
More popular books often have shorter titles. Here is a list of one word book titles
blink, Freakonomics, roots, sugar, banjo, rising, cane, crave, emotions, love, until, dune and 118 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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rastafari
dem woodz assoseeated wit da reegae mon..
( Reggae, Rastafari, Rasta, Jamaica, Zion, Haile Selassie, Africa, Caribbean )
( slang, randomness )Rastafari, puff, Jah, reggae, Haile Selassie, Jamaica, Kingston, Caribbean, Dominican, Zion, Africa, cannabis and 81 more...
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Public List: Free Association
Read the top word on the list and add a word that you associate with it. The association may be semantic, etymological, structural, literary, personal, etc.
Rules:
1. In t...mounch, mensch, trench, war, harmony, guitar, cigar, bubblegum, baseball cards, shortstop, bear, chained and 72 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for freedom.
edwardvielmetti intellectual freedom and privacy Dec 10, 2006