Meaning of liberty in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Noun
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /ˈlɪbərdi/

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  1. Noun

    liberty

    Etymology

    late Middle English: from Old French liberte, from Latin libertas, from liber‘free’

    Definitions

    1. immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence

    Derived terms

  2. 2. freedom of choice

    Examples

    • « liberty of opinion »
    • « liberty of worship »
    • « liberty--perfect liberty--to think or feel or do just as one pleases »
    • « at liberty to choose whatever occupation one wishes »

    Derived terms

  3. 3. personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression

    Derived terms

  4. 4. leave granted to a sailor or naval officer
  5. 5. an act of undue intimacy

Famous quotes

  • « That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself. »
    Thomas Hobbes
  • « Such security is equal liberty. But it is not necessarily equality in the use of the earth. »
    Benjamin Tucker
  • « Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. »
    George Washington
  • « We stand in the shadow of Jefferson who believed that a society founded upon the rule of law and liberty was dependent upon public education and the diffusion of knowledge. »
    Matt Blunt
  • « And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade? »
    Frederic Bastiat

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