liberal
Pronunciation: /ˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹəl/
The English word “liberal” has 12 meanings listed here.
adjective
- Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.
- Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.
- Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.
- Unrestrained, licentious.
- Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is to cultivate and develop wise, capable and well-rounded people who are thus free of mental constraint and hindrance.
- Pertaining to those arts and sciences the study of which is considered to provide general knowledge, as opposed to vocational/occupational, technical or mechanical training; usually found in the phrase "liberal arts".
- Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical liberalism or "modern liberalism"/progressivism.
noun
- One with liberal views, supporting individual liberty (see Wikipedia's article on Liberalism).
- Someone with progressive or left-wing views, especially on social and environmental issues.
- A supporter of any of several liberal parties.
- One who favors individual voting rights, human and civil rights, and laissez-faire markets (also called "classical liberal"; compare libertarian).
- A conservative, especially a liberal conservative.
Etymology
The adjective is from Old French liberal, from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”); it is attested since the 14th century. The noun is first attested in the 1800s.
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More English words
- liber
- liber amicorum
- Libera
- Liberal
- liberal arts
- liberal conservatism
- liberal conservative
- liberal democracy
About this dictionary
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.