FREEDOM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does freedom mean? 

• FREEDOM (noun)
  The noun FREEDOM has 2 senses:

1. the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints

2. immunity from an obligation or duty

  Familiarity information: FREEDOM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FREEDOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("freedom" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Attribute:

free (not limited or hampered; not under compulsion or restraint)

unfree (hampered and not free; not able to act at will)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "freedom"):

academic freedom (the freedom of teachers and students to express their ideas in school without religious or political or institutional restrictions)

enfranchisement (freedom from political subjugation or servitude)

blank check; free hand (freedom to do as you see fit)

free rein; play (the removal of constraints)

freedom of the seas (the right of merchant ships to travel freely in international waters)

independence; independency (freedom from control or influence of another or others)

liberty (freedom of choice)

civil liberty; political liberty (one's freedom to exercise one's rights as guaranteed under the laws of the country)

liberty (personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression)

svoboda ((Russia) freedom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Immunity from an obligation or duty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

exemption; freedom

Hypernyms ("freedom" is a kind of...):

immunity; unsusceptibility (the state of not being susceptible)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "freedom"):

amnesty (a period during which offenders are exempt from punishment)

diplomatic immunity (exemption from taxation or normal processes of law that is offered to diplomatic personnel in a foreign country)

indemnity (legal exemption from liability for damages)

impunity (exemption from punishment or loss)

grandfather clause (an exemption based on circumstances existing prior to the adoption of some policy; used to enfranchise illiterate whites in south after the American Civil War)

 Context examples 

A feeling of freedom from constraint or embarrassment.

(Ease, NCI Thesaurus)

I hope that gentleman will take warning, sir, and will not be offended at my freedom.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A mathematical distribution whose shape is determined by its one parameter, the degree(s) of freedom (df).

(Chi-Square Distribution, NCI Thesaurus)

Freedom from control or influence of another or others factors.

(Independence, NCI Thesaurus)

It bound his movements, restricted his freedom.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is defined as the sum of the products of the standard scores of the two measures divided by the degrees of freedom.

(Pearson Correlation Coefficient, NCI Thesaurus)

Only at certain times can he have limited freedom.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A feeling of freedom from agitation or excitement.

(Calm, NCI Thesaurus)

He knew its mark, and with a sudden glorious consciousness of freedom he threw it on the floor and stamped on it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There were many of us who were glad enough to win back our freedom, and yet who had no wish to have murder on our souls.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)