free
adjective · adverb · verb
Simple meaning
Not held back, able to move easily, or not combined with others
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
freeIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
social
Unconstrained or not chemically bound in a molecule or not fixed and capable of relatively unrestricted motion
social
Unconstrained.
socialabstract
Unconstrained.
socialphysical
Unconstrained.
sociallogicof a variable
Unconstrained by quantifiers.
socialprogramming
Unconstrained of identifiers, not bound.
adverb
Without needing to pay.
verb
Free or remove obstruction from
“Free a path across the cluttered floor.”
transitive
To make free; set at liberty; release.
Make (assets) available
transitive
To rid of something that confines or oppresses. [with from]
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Unconstrained or not chemically bound in a molecule or not fixed and capable of relatively unrestricted motion
Used this way, free is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- unbound , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use free
- “After the Civil War he was a free man.”adjective
- “Free a path across the cluttered floor.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of liberating someone or something.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The condition of being free.
In a free manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The formal act of liberating someone.
People who are free.
A phagocyte that circulates in the blood.
An area adjoining a port where goods that are intended for reshipment can be received and stored without payment of duties.
A press not restricted or controlled by government censorship regarding politics or ideology.
An atom or group of atoms with at least one unpaired electron.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A race (as in swimming) in which each contestant has a free choice of the style to use.
A person who has been freed from slavery.
Something that is free (usually provided as part of a promotional scheme).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.