free (English, adj)
Pronunciation: enpr: frē
ipa: /fɹiː/
ipa: [fɹɪi̯]
rhymes: -iː
homophone: three (th-fronting)
Etymology: From Middle English free, fre, freo, from Old English frēo (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“pleased, loved”), from *preyH- (“to please, love”). Related to friend.
cognates, etc
Germanic cognates include West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), Low German free (“free”), German frei (“free”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian fri (“free”).
Other cognates include Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).
Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").
The verb comes from Middle English freen, freoȝen, from Old English frēon, frēoġan (“to free; make free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frijōn, from Proto-Germanic *frijōną, from Proto-Indo-European *preyH-, and is cognate with German freien, Dutch vrijen, Czech přát, Serbo-Croatian prijati, Polish sprzyjać.
Definitions: examples: text: Free Blacks
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type: example
text: a free man
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type: example
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
bound
enslaved
imprisoned
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Not imprisoned or enslaved.
examples: text: He's very free with his money.
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type: example
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Generous; liberal.
examples: text: My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.
ref: 1679, John Dryden, Oedipus: A Tragedy, page 59:
type: quote
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synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Clear of offence or crime; guiltless; innocent.
tags: obsolete
examples: text: free time
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type: example
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Without obligations.
examples: text: a free school
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type: example
text: Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free / For me as for you?
ref: 1590-2, William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, I, ii:
type: quote
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synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
To be enjoyed by anyone freely.
examples: text: the Free World
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type: example
text: This is a free country.
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type: example
topics: country
location
region
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
nonauthoritarian
antonyms: constrained
restricted
unfree
authoritarian
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Upholding individual rights.
raw_tags: of a government
examples: text: OpenOffice is free software.
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type: example
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
libre
free as in speech
free as in freedom
antonyms: constrained
restricted
proprietary
nonfree
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
With no or only freedom-preserving limitations on distribution or modification.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
software
synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
Intended for release, as opposed to a checked version.
examples: text: He was given free rein to do whatever he wanted.
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text: Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be free.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
type: quote
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text: There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”
ref: 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:
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text: Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.
ref: 2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
type: quote
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synonyms: unconstrained
unfettered
unhindered
quit
antonyms: constrained
restricted
qualifier: social
glosses: Unconstrained.
examples: text: Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
ref: 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
type: quote
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text: The government provides free health care.
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type: example
text: It's free real estate.
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type: example
synonyms: free of charge
gratis
costless
feeless
;
free as in beer
antonyms: see at nonfree
glosses: Obtainable without any payment.
examples: text: Buy a TV to get a free DVD player!
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type: example
synonyms: free of charge
gratis
costless
feeless
;
free as in beer
antonyms: see at nonfree
glosses: Obtainable without any payment.
Complimentary.
tags: broadly
raw_tags: used in advertising
topics: algebra
category-theory
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
In any of various technical senses generic, universal.
Such that any map f from X to the underlying set of an object A in the same category as F induces a map ̄f from F to A which is compatible with f (i.e. such that f=̄f∘i).
qualifier: most generally
tags: abstract
raw_tags: of an object F in a concrete category
with respect to a set X and a map i from X to the underlying set of F
of an algebraic structure
examples: text: The fundamental group of the figure eight is free of rank 2.
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type: example
topics: algebra
group-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
In any of various technical senses generic, universal.
Having a set of generators which satisfy no non-trivial relations; equivalently, being the group of reduced words on a set of generators.
tags: abstract
raw_tags: of a group
of an algebraic structure
topics: algebra
mathematics
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
In any of various technical senses generic, universal.
Having a linearly independent set of generators (called a basis).
qualifier: commutative algebra
tags: abstract
raw_tags: of a module
of an algebraic structure
examples: text: z is the free variable in #92;forallx#92;existsy#58;xy#61;z.
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type: example
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
Unconstrained by quantifiers.
antonyms: bound
tags: abstract
raw_tags: of a variable
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
Unconstrained of identifiers, not bound.
synonyms: unbound
antonyms: bound
tags: abstract
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
(of a morpheme) That can be used by itself, unattached to another morpheme.
tags: abstract
examples: text: the drain was free
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type: example
glosses: Unconstrained.
Unobstructed, without blockages.
synonyms: clear
unobstructed
antonyms: blocked
obstructed
tags: physical
examples: text: a free radical
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type: example
glosses: Unconstrained.
Unattached or uncombined.
synonyms: loose
unfastened
loose
tags: physical
examples: text: You can sit on this chair; it's free.
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type: example
glosses: Unconstrained.
Not currently in use; not taken; unoccupied.
tags: physical
examples: text: In this group of mushrooms, the gills are free.
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type: example
text: Furthermore, the free anterior margin of the lobule is arched toward the lobe and is often involute[…]
ref: 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 7:
type: quote
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topics: biology
botany
mycology
natural-sciences
glosses: Unconstrained.
Not attached; loose.
tags: physical
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Unconstrained.
Of a rocket or missile: not under the control of a guidance system after being launched.
tags: physical
examples: text: We had a wholesome, filling meal, free of meat.  I would like to live free from care in the mountains.
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type: example
text: princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties
ref: 1679-1715, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England:
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text: One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
type: quote
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synonyms: without
glosses: Without; not containing (what is specified); exempt; clear; liberated.
examples: text: a free horse
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type: example
glosses: Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited.
tags: dated
examples: text: He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, / Free of his farm.
ref: 1697, John Dryden, “Part 3, line 1245”, in The Hind and the Panther:
type: quote
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glosses: Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; followed by of.
tags: dated
examples: text: free service;  free socage
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type: example
topics: law
glosses: Certain or honourable; the opposite of base.
tags: UK
obsolete
examples: text: a free fishery;  a free warren
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type: example
topics: law
antonyms: common
nonproprietary
glosses: Privileged or individual; proprietary.
Forms: form: freer
tags: comparative
form: more free
tags: comparative
form: freest
tags: superlative
form: most free
tags: superlative
Antonyms: unfree
Hyponyms: -free
Derived terms: word: break free
word: cofree
word: copyfree
word: double free
word: enfree
word: feel free
word: first bite free
word: folkfree
word: footloose and fancy free
word: free Abelian group
word: free abelian group
word: freeable
word: freeaboo
word: free agency
word: free agent
word: free algebra
word: free alongside
word: free alongside ship
word: free alongside ships
word: free and clear
word: free and easy
word: free-and-easy
word: free as a bird
word: free as in beer
word: free as in freedom
word: free as in speech
word: free association
word: free as the wind
word: free ball
word: freeball
word: freebander
word: freebanding
word: free base
word: freebase
word: free bench
word: freebirth
word: free-blown
word: freeblown
word: free board
word: free body
word: free body diagram
word: free-body diagram
word: free-boob
word: free Boolean algebra
word: freebooter
word: freeborn
word: free box
word: FreeBSD
word: freeburn
word: free cash flow
word: free category
word: free cell formation
word: freechapel
word: Free China
word: free church
word: free city
word: Free City of Tri-Insula
word: free-climb
word: freeclimb
word: free climber
word: free climbing
word: free-climbing
word: free clinic
word: free clothes association
word: free coinage
word: free communism
word: free communist
word: free companion
word: freeconomics
word: free convection
word: free-cooling
word: free corps
word: free country
word: Freecycle
word: freecycle
word: free day
word: free diver
word: free-diver
word: free diving
word: free-diving
word: freedom
word: freedom ain't free
word: freedom is not free
word: freedom isn't free
word: freedom's not free
word: free edge
word: free electron
word: free energy
word: free enterprise
word: free-exercise clause
word: free expression
word: freefall
word: freefaller
word: free fall
word: free-fall
word: free-fall time
word: free fatty acid
word: free-feed
word: free-fire
word: free float
word: free-floating
word: free-floating planet
word: freeflow
word: free-flowing
word: free-fly
word: free-flying
word: free-for-all
word: free form
word: free-form
word: Free France
word: free-from
word: freegan
word: free grace
word: free group
word: freehand
word: freehanded
word: free hand
word: free-hand
word: free-handed
word: free-handedly
word: free-handedness
word: free-hanging
word: freehearted
word: free-hearted
word: free-heartedly
word: free-heartedness
word: free-heel skiing
word: free helicopter ride
word: freeholding
word: freehood
word: free house
word: freehub
word: free imperial city
word: free indirect discourse
word: free indirect speech
word: free indirect style
word: freeish
word: free jazz
word: Free Kirk
word: freelance
word: free lance
word: Freelander
word: free leg
word: free library
word: freeline
word: free list
word: free liver
word: free-liver
word: free-living
word: free-loader
word: freeloader
word: freelook
word: free love
word: free lover
word: free lunch
word: freely
word: freemail
word: Freeman
word: freeman
word: free market
word: free-market
word: free marketeer
word: free-marketeer
word: free marketeering
word: free-market fundamentalism
word: free-marketism
word: freemason
word: Freemason
word: free-milling
word: freeminer
word: freemium
word: free-mix
word: freemix
word: free module
word: free monoid
word: free morpheme
word: freeness
word: Freenet
word: free neutron
word: free object
word: free of charge
word: free of the city
word: free on board
word: free pass
word: free period
word: freephone
word: free port
word: freepost
word: free press
word: free product
word: free radical
word: free range
word: free-range
word: free-ranging
word: free reed
english: or free reign
word: free rein
word: free ride
word: free-ride
word: free rider
word: free-rider problem
word: free roam
word: free-roam
word: free-roaming
word: freeroll
word: freerun
word: free run
word: free runner
word: free-running
word: free running
word: freerunning
word: free school movement
word: free semigroup
word: freesheet
word: free sheet
word: free-sheet
word: freeship
word: free shop
word: free silver
word: free silverite
word: freeskiing
word: Free-Soilism
word: free solo
word: free-solo
word: free soloist
word: freesome
word: Free Soviets
word: free space
word: free-speaking
word: free speech
word: free-speecher
word: free speech zone
word: free spin
word: free spirit
word: free-spirited
word: free-spoken
word: freespool
word: freestanding
word: free-standing
word: free state
word: freester
word: freestone
word: free-stone
word: freestore
word: free store
word: freestream
word: free-style
word: free substitution
word: free sugar
word: free surface
word: free surface effect
word: free-swimming
word: freetail
word: free-tailed bat
word: free tekno
word: free termineme
word: free thinker
word: freethinker
word: free-thinker
word: free-thinking
word: freethinking
word: free thought
word: free throw
word: free-throw lane
word: free-throw line
word: free throw percentage
word: free time
word: free to air
word: free-to-air
word: free-tongued
word: free to play
word: free-to-play
word: Freetown
word: free trade
word: free trade area
word: free-trade area
word: free trader
word: free trial
word: free-turbine engine
word: free ultrafilter
word: free university
word: free up
word: free use
word: free variable
word: free variation
word: free verse
word: free vote
word: freeware
word: free warren
word: free water
word: freeway
word: free weight
word: freewheel
word: free-wheeling
word: free-will
word: free will
word: free-willer
word: free will theorem
word: freewoman
word: free world
word: freewriting
word: free zone
word: get out of jail free card
word: get-out-of-jail-free card
word: Gibbs free energy
word: go free
word: half-free
word: home free
word: it's a free country
word: land of the free
word: leader of the free world
word: live rent-free in someone's head
word: live rent free in someone's head
word: make free of
word: make free with
word: mean free path
word: mean free time
word: no free lunch theorem
word: non-free software
word: olly olly oxen free
word: overfree
word: permafree
word: quasifree
word: region free
word: semifree
word: set free
word: the best things in life are free
word: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
word: there's no such thing as a free lunch
word: there is no free lunch
word: there is no such thing as a free lunch
word: topfree
word: uncoated free sheet
word: walk free
word: weapons free
word: Wee Free
word: why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free
Related terms: friend