free·dom
(fr
d
m)
KEY
NOUN:
- The condition of being free of restraints.
- Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
-
- Political independence.
- Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty:
freedom of assembly.
- Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition:
freedom from want.
- The capacity to exercise choice; free will:
We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
- Ease or facility of movement:
loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
- Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve:
the new freedom in movies and novels.
-
- The right to unrestricted use; full access:
was given the freedom of their research facilities.
- The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship:
the freedom of the city.
- 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).
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English
fredom, from Old English
frod
m :
fro,
free ; see
free
+
-dm,
-dom
SYNONYMS:
freedom
, liberty
, license
These nouns refer to the power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints.
Freedom is the most general term:
"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free"
(Abraham Lincoln).
Liberty stresses the power of free choice:
"liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases"
(William Hazlitt).
License sometimes denotes deliberate deviation from normally applicable rules or practices to achieve a desired effect:
poetic license.
Frequently, though, it denotes undue freedom:
"the intolerable license with which the newspapers break . . . the rules of decorum"
(Edmund Burke).
