What does free mean?

What does free mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does free mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] people who are free(the home of the free and the brave)[v] grant freedom to; free from confinement[a] able to act at will; not hampered; not under compulsion or restraint(free enterprise a free port a free country I have an hour free free will free of racism feel free to stay as long a

free

free - The Free Dictionary

[n] people who are free
(the home of the free and the brave)

[v] grant freedom to; free from confinement

[a] able to act at will; not hampered; not under compulsion or restraint
(free enterprise a free port a free country I have an hour free free will free of racism feel free to stay as long as you wish a free choice)

[r] without restraint
(cows in India are running loose)

[v] relieve from
(Rid the house of pests)

[a] unconstrained or not chemically bound in a molecule or not fixed and capable of relatively unrestricted motion
(free expansion free oxygen a free electron)

[v] remove or force out from a position
(The dentist dislodged the piece of food that had been stuck under my gums He finally could free the legs of the earthquake victim who was buried in the rubble)

[a] costing nothing
(complimentary tickets free admission)

[v] grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to
(She exempted me from the exam)

[a] not occupied or in use
(a free locker a free lane)

[v] make (information) available for publication
(release the list with the names of the prisoners)

[a] not fixed in position
(the detached shutter fell on him he pulled his arm free and ran)

[v] free from obligations or duties

[a] not held in servitude
(after the Civil War he was a free man)

[v] free or remove obstruction from
(free a path across the cluttered floor)

[a] not taken up by scheduled activities
(a free hour between classes spare time on my hands)

[v] let off the hook
(I absolve you from this responsibility)

[a] completely wanting or lacking
(writing barren of insight young recruits destitute of experience innocent of literary merit the sentence was devoid of meaning)

[v] part with a possession or right
(I am relinquishing my bedroom to the long-term house guest resign a claim to the throne)

[a] not literal
(a loose interpretation of what she had been told a free translation of the poem)

[v] release (gas or energy) as a result of a chemical reaction or physical decomposition

[v] make (assets) available
(release the holdings in the dictator's bank account)

Other vocabulary

f, f clef, f layer, f number, f region, f. d. roosevelt, f. g. banting, f. scott fitzgerald, f.i.s.c., fa, fa la, faa, fab, fabaceae, faberge, fabian, fabian society, fabiana, fabiana imbricata, fabianism, fable, fabled, fabric, fabricate, fabricated, fabrication, fabricator, fabulist, fabulous, fabulously, r, r and b, r-2, r. b. cattell, r. buckminster fuller, r. j. mitchell, r.c., r.v., ra, rabat, rabato, rabbet, rabbet joint, rabbet plane, rabbi, rabbi moses ben maimon, rabbinate, rabbinic, rabbinical, rabbit, rabbit bandicoot, rabbit brush, rabbit burrow, rabbit bush, rabbit ears, rabbit fever, rabbit food, rabbit hole, rabbit hutch, rabbit on

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.