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liberal

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

liberuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈlɪbɚəl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.

  2. politics

    Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism.

  3. Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.

  4. Of or relating to the Liberal party, its membership, or its platform, policy, or viewpoint.

  5. Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.

noun

  1. US politicsCanadian politicsPhilippine politics

    Someone with progressive or left-wing views, especially on social and environmental issues.

  2. One with liberal views, supporting individual liberty.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Open

liberal government

Pertaining

liberal artsliberal education

Other combinations

liberal partyliberal democracyliberal democratsliberal policyliberal state

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • liberationnounDerived noun

    The act of liberating someone or something.

  • liberallyadverbDerived adverb

    Freely in a nonliteral manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • liberal artsnounCompound term

    Studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills).

  • liberal democrat partynounCompound term

    A political party in Great Britain.

  • liberal partynounCompound term

    A political party in Australia, Canada, and other nations, and formerly in Great Britain.

  • armchair liberalnounCompound term

    A person of liberal ideals who takes no action to realize them.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: widely open to new ideas

leftprogressivereformistwelfaristRare

noun

Sense: (US politics or Canadian politics

progressive

Antonyms

Sense: widely open to new ideas

conservative

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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.