liberal
/ˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.66 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
adj
Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.
adj
Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is personal development rather than functional learning.
adj
Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is personal development rather than functional learning.
adj
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).
Example Sentences
- "He was liberal with his compliments."
- "Indeed, the Government has been very liberal in the expenditure of public money"
- "When he shows improvement she is liberal with her praise and then moves on to the next set of skills to be learnt."
- "Queen Isabella was already being called Santa Isabella by many of her subjects because she was liberal with her alms."
- "Was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace?"
- "Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁lewdʰ-, liberal, līberālis
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹəl/
- British English: /ˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹəl/