free
Part of speech: adj
adv
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: algebra
biology
botany
category-theory
computing
country
engineering
government
group-theory
hobbies
human-sciences
law
lifestyle
linguistics
location
logic
mathematics
military
motor-racing
mycology
natural-sciences
philosophy
physical-sciences
politics
programming
racing
region
sciences
software
sports
war
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *preyH-
Proto-Indo-European *-ós
Proto-Indo-European *priHós
Proto-Germanic *frijwaz
Proto-West Germanic *friu
Old English frēo
Middle English fre
English free
From Middle English fre, from Old English frēo, frēoh, frī, friġ, frīoh (“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; to love”). Related to friend.
cognates, etc
Germanic cognates include Scots fre (“free”), North Frisian frai, frei, fri, Frii (“free”), Saterland Frisian fräi (“free”), West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), German frei (“free”), Low German free (“free”), Luxembourgish fräi (“free”), Vilamovian frȧj (“free”), Yiddish פֿרײַ (fray, “free”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fri (“free”), Faroese fríur (“free”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃 (freis, “free”).
Other cognates include Cornish rydh (“free”), Welsh rhydd (“free”), Latin propriō (“to appropriate”), Czech přát (“to wish; to favour”), Polish sprzyjać (“to favour, foster”), Serbo-Croatian прѝјати, prìjati (“to please, taste, suit; to be agreeable, relish”), Slovak priať (“to wish”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (friia, “good, pleasant”), Persian فری (fari, “beloved, dear; agreeable, pleasing”), Sanskrit प्रिय (priya, “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").
Inflected forms:
form: freer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more free
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: freest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most free
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: more free
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: most free
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: frees
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: freeing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: freed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: freed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: He was given free rein to do whatever he wanted.
Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be free.
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 […].”
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.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: Free Blacks
a free man
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: He's very free with his money.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: free time
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: a free school
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free / For me as for you?
[Edmund] Burke continued to fight for liberty later on in life. He backed Americans in their campaign for freedom from British taxation. He supported Catholic freedoms and freer trade with Ireland, in spite of his constituents’ ire. He wanted more liberal laws on the punishment of debtors.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: the Free World
This is a free country.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
examples: OpenOffice is free software.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
gloss: Obtainable without any payment.
pos: adj
examples: The government provides free health care.
It's free real estate.
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.
gloss: Obtainable without any payment.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
examples: Buy a TV to get a free DVD player!
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
examples: The fundamental group of the figure eight is free of rank 2.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
examples: z is the free variable in #92;forallx#92;existsy#58;xy#61;z.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: abstract
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: physical
examples: the drain was free
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: physical
examples: a free radical
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: physical
examples: You can sit on this chair; it's free.
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: physical
examples: In this group of mushrooms, the gills are free.
Furthermore, the free anterior margin of the lobule is arched toward the lobe and is often involute[…]
gloss: Unconstrained.
pos: adj
tags: physical
gloss: Without; not containing (what is specified); exempt; clear; liberated.
pos: adj
examples: We had a wholesome, filling meal, free of meat.  I would like to live free from care in the mountains.
princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties
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.
gloss: Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: a free horse
gloss: Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; followed by of.
pos: adj
tags: dated
examples: He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, / Free of his farm.
gloss: Certain or honourable; the opposite of base.
pos: adj
tags: UK
obsolete
examples: free service;  free socage
gloss: Privileged or individual; proprietary.
pos: adj
examples: a free fishery;  a free warren
gloss: Having oversteer.
pos: adj
tags: US
slang
gloss: Without needing to pay.
pos: adv
examples: I got this bike free.
Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.
gloss: Freely; willingly.
pos: adv
tags: obsolete
examples: I as free forgive you / As I would be forgiven.
gloss: To make free; set at liberty; release.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Pro.[…]Spirit, fine ſpirit, Ile free thee / Within two dayes for this.
Liberia was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society whose goal was to resettle freed slaves in Africa.
gloss: To rid of something that confines or oppresses.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait. If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to forswear travel; and if I perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from toil and moil."
gloss: To relinquish (previously allocated memory) to the system.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: There is no way to access that original area of memory, nor is there any way to free it before the program ends.
Synonyms: befree
emancipate
let loose
liberate
manumit
release
unchain
unfetter
unshackle
Antonyms: unfree
Related words: friend
Derived words: break free
feel free
first bite free
footloose and fancy free
free Abelian group
free abelian group
freeable
freeaboo
free agency
free agent
free algebra
free alongside
free alongside ship
free alongside ships
free as a bird
free as in beer
free as in freedom
free as in speech
free association
free as the wind
free ball
freeball
freebander
freebanding
free base
freebase
free bench
freebirth
free bleed
free bleeding
free-bleeding
freeblown
free-blown
free board
free body
free body diagram
free-body diagram
free-boob
free Boolean algebra
freebooter
freeborn
free box
FreeBSD
freeburn
free cash flow
free category
free cell formation
freechapel
free cheek
Free China
free church
free city
Free City of Tri-Insula
free climber
free climbing
free-climbing
freeclimb
free-climb
free clinic
free clothes association
free coinage
free communism
free communist
free companion
freeconomics
free convection
free-cooling
free corps
free country
freecycle
Freecycle
free day
free diver
free-diver
free diving
free-diving
freedom
freedom ain't free
freedom is not free
freedom isn't free
freedom's not free
free edge
free electron
free end
free energy
free enterprise
free enterpriser
free-exercise clause
free expression
freefall
freefaller
free fall
free-fall
free-fall time
free fatty acid
free-feed
free-fire
free float
free-floating
free-floating planet
freeflow
free-flowing
free-fly
free-flying
free-for-all
free form
free-form
Free France
free-from
freegan
free grace
free group
free hand
free-hand
freehand
free-handed
freehanded
free-handedly
free-handedness
free-hanging
free-hearted
freehearted
free-heartedly
free-heartedness
free-heel skiing
free helicopter ride
freeholding
freehood
free house
freehub
free imperial city
free indirect discourse
free indirect speech
free indirect style
freeish
free jazz
Free Kirk
freelance
free lance
Freelander
free leg
free library
freeline
free list
free liver
free-liver
free-living
free-loader
freeloader
freelook
free love
free lover
free lunch
freely
freemail
freeman
Freeman
free market
free-market
free marketeer
free-marketeer
free marketeering
free-market fundamentalism
free-marketism
Freemason
freemason
free-milling
freeminer
freemium
free-mix
freemix
free mixing
free module
free monoid
free morpheme
freeness
Freenet
free neutron
free object
free of charge
free of the city
free on board
free pass
free period
freephone
free port
freepost
free press
free product
free radical
free range
free-range
free-ranging
free reed
free rein
free ride
free-ride
free rider
free-rider problem
free roam
free-roam
free-roaming
freeroll
free run
freerun
free runner
free-running
free running
freerunning
free school
free school movement
free semigroup
free sheet
free-sheet
freesheet
freeship
free shop
free silver
free silverite
freeskiing
Free-Soilism
free solo
free-solo
free soloist
freesome
Free Soviets
free space
free-speaking
free speech
free-speecher
free speech zone
free spin
free spirit
free-spirited
free-spoken
freespool
free-standing
freestanding
free state
freester
free-stone
freestone
freestore
free store
freestream
free-style
freestyle
free substitution
free sugar
free surface
free surface effect
free-swimming
free syllable
freetail
free-tailed bat
free tekno
free termineme
free-thinker
free thinker
freethinker
free-thinking
freethinking
free thought
free throw
free-throw lane
free-throw line
free throw percentage
free time
freetime
free to air
free-to-air
free-tongued
free to play
free-to-play
Freetown
free trade
free trade area
free-trade area
free trader
free trial
free-turbine engine
free ultrafilter
free university
free use
free variable
free variation
free verse
free vote
freeware
free warren
free water
freeway
free weight
freewheel
free wheel
free-wheeling
free will
free-will
free-willer
free will theorem
freewoman
free world
freewriting
free zone
get out of jail free card
get-out-of-jail-free card
Gibbs free energy
go free
half-free
home free
it's a free country
land of the free
leader of the free world
live rent-free in someone's head
live rent free in someone's head
make free of
make free with
mean free path
mean free time
no free lunch theorem
non-free software
olly olly oxen free
region free
set free
the best things in life are free
there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
there's no such thing as a free lunch
there is no free lunch
there is no such thing as a free lunch
no free lunch
uncoated free sheet
walk free
weapons free
why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free
free up
befree
Translations:
lang: Albanian
word: pafre
lang: Albanian
word: falas
lang: Amharic
word: ነፃ
roman: näṣ́a
lang: Arabic
word: حُرّ
roman: ḥurr
lang: Arabic
word: حر
roman: ḥurr
lang: Armenian
word: ազատ
roman: azat
lang: Assamese
word: মুকলি
roman: mukoli
lang: Asturian
word: llibre
lang: Azerbaijani
word: sərbəst
lang: Bambara
word: hɔrɔn
lang: Bashkir
word: иркен
roman: irken
lang: Catalan
word: lliure
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 自由的
roman: zìyóu de
lang: Czech
word: volný
lang: Danish
word: fri
lang: Dutch
word: vrij
lang: Dutch
word: los
lang: Dutch
word: loslopend
lang: Esperanto
word: libera
lang: Estonian
word: vaba
lang: Estonian
word: prii
lang: Finnish
word: vapaa
lang: Finnish
word: rajoittamaton
lang: French
word: libre
lang: Galician
word: libre
lang: German
word: frei
lang: German
word: ungezwungen
lang: German
word: freimütig
lang: German
word: frank und frei
lang: Gothic
word: 𐍆𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃
roman: freis
lang: Greek
word: ελεύθερος
roman: eléftheros
lang: Greek
word: ανεμπόδιστος
roman: anempódistos
lang: Hebrew
word: פָּנוּי
roman: panúy
lang: Hindi
word: आज़ाद
roman: āzād
lang: Hindi
word: मुक्त
roman: mukt
lang: Hindi
word: स्वतंत्र
roman: svatantra
lang: Ido
word: libera
lang: Interlingua
word: libere
lang: Interlingua
word: franc
lang: Irish
word: saor
lang: Irish
word: scaoilte
lang: Irish
word: éasca
lang: Old Irish
word: sóer
lang: Italian
word: libero
lang: Italian
word: brado
lang: Japanese
word: 自由
roman: jiyū
lang: Khmer
word: ស្រស់ស្រាយ
roman: srɑh sraay
lang: Korean
word: 자유적(自由的)이다
roman: jayujeog-ida
lang: Central Kurdish
word: سەربەست
roman: serbest
lang: Northern Kurdish
word: berdayî
lang: Northern Kurdish
word: aza
lang: Latin
word: līber
lang: Latvian
word: brīvs
lang: Limburgish
word: vrie
lang: Lindu
word: naloa
lang: Low German
word: free
lang: Macedonian
word: слободен
roman: sloboden
lang: Malay
word: merdeka
lang: Malayalam
word: സ്വതന്ത്രം
roman: svatantraṁ
lang: Māori
word: māhorahora
lang: Norman
word: libre
lang: Norwegian
word: fri
lang: Norwegian
word: løs
lang: Old English
word: unċīepe
lang: Persian
word: آزاد
roman: âzâd
lang: Polish
word: wolny
lang: Polish
word: swobodny
lang: Portuguese
word: livre
lang: Romanian
word: liber
lang: Romanian
word: neîmpiedicat
lang: Russian
word: свобо́дный
roman: svobódnyj
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: saor
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: povoljno
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: voljno
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: neograničen
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: slobodan
lang: Sindhi
word: چٽل
roman: cṭl
lang: Lower Sorbian
word: lichy
lang: Spanish
word: libre
lang: Swedish
word: fri
lang: Turkish
word: serbest
lang: Vietnamese
word: tự do
lang: Welsh
word: rhydd
lang: Yiddish
word: פֿרײַ
roman: fray
lang: Zazaki
word: serbest
lang: Czech
word: volný
lang: Finnish
word: vapaa
lang: French
word: libre
lang: Hungarian
word: szabad
lang: Norwegian
word: fri
lang: Polish
word: wolny
lang: Portuguese
word: livre
lang: Romanian
word: liber
lang: Romanian
word: nelegat