liberal

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.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada, General Australian) enPR: lĭbʹ(ə)rəl, IPA^(key): /ˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹəl/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɪbɹəl

liberal (comparative more liberal, superlative most liberal)

1. (now rare outside set phrases) 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.

   He had a full education studying the liberal arts.

   • 1983, David Leslie Wagner, The Seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages:
   • 1997, Gordon D. Morgan, Toward an American Sociology: Questioning the European Construct, →ISBN, page 45:

     Americans remain enamored with Europe's ability to produce the consequential thought for America. It was the same in nearly every liberal field. Education sought its roots in such Europeans as Froebel, Frobenius, and Rousseau. Political science tried to connect to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, and Otto von Bismarck, for instance. Economics copied the thought of Adam Smith, […]

   • 2008, Donal G. Mulcahy, The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education, →ISBN:
2. Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.

   He was liberal with his compliments.

   • 1899, J. M. Baltimore, “Pacific Coast Light Service”, in Overland Monthly, volume 33:

     Indeed, the Government has been very liberal in the expenditure of public money

   • 2005, John Gardner, Assessment and Learning, →ISBN, page 50:

     When he shows improvement she is liberal with her praise and then moves on to the next set of skills to be learnt.

   • 2007, Helena Page Schrader, The English Templar, →ISBN, page 309:

     Queen Isabella was already being called Santa Isabella by many of her subjects because she was liberal with her alms.

   • 2010, Simon Guillebaud, More Than Conquerors: A Call to Radical Discipleship, →ISBN, page 142:

     Was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace?

   • 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:

     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.

3. Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.

   Add a liberal sprinkling of salt.

   • 1896, Ice and refrigeration, volume 11, page 93:

     For this reason a liberal amount of piping should be used. If a liberal supply of piping is provided at first, the first cost will of course be greater, but the extra expenditure is called for but once.

   • 2009, R. Furman Kenney, Chesterville: The Village at the End of the Road, →ISBN, page 102:

     The result was usually that such helpers got a liberal sprinkling of mud over their clothing.

   • 2011, Marlene Perez, Dead Is Not an Option, →ISBN, page 37:

     Rose put a steaming cup of mint tea in front of me and spooned a liberal helping of honey into it.

4. (obsolete) Unrestrained, licentious.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
     Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
     Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
     Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
     Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
     A thousand times in secret.

5. Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.

   Her parents had liberal ideas about child-rearing.

6. (politics) Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism.
   • 2021, Judith Rainhorn, The Colour of Controversy..., p. 10:

     Endorsing the liberal anti-interventionist credo that the marketplace should act as the "site of verification," the advocates of white lead opposed government intervention for the sake of open economic competition, which they claimed revealed its true value and thus should be the sole determinant: "When the railways were built, the stage coaches disppeared; they died a timely death. If zinc white is truly superior to white lead, it will kill us in the marketplace, but the government should not intervene." These were the words of Expert-Bezançon, in his February 1903 deposition to the parliamentary committee examining the bill for banning lead-based pigments in paint.

• Differences between the classical and modern political definitions of the word "liberal" can make some phrases ambiguous. For example, if one says a certain region has "liberal gun laws," this can be interpreted with two opposite meanings.
• Recently, “liberal” as it was used previously has split into two terms “liberal” and “leftist”, where “leftist” refers to one with left-wing views spanning all political issues, whereas “liberal” refers to one with left-wing views on social and environmental issues but centrist or even conservative views on matters concerning economics and political reform.

• (antonym(s) of “generous; permitting liberty”): authoritarian
• (antonym(s) of “widely open to new ideas”): conservative

• small-l liberal

• → Korean: 리버럴하다 (ribeoreolhada)

liberal (plural liberals)

1. One with liberal views, supporting individual liberty (see Wikipedia's article on Liberalism).
2. (US politics, Canadian politics, Philippine politics) Someone with progressive or left-wing views, especially on social and environmental issues.
   • 1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”‎^[1]:

     And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
     As long as they don't move next door.
     So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.

3. (politics) A supporter of any of several liberal parties.
4. (UK politics) One who favors individual voting rights, human and civil rights, and laissez-faire markets (also called "classical liberal"; compare libertarian).
5. (Australian politics) A conservative, especially a liberal conservative.

• moderate, conservative, progressive, libertarian, centrist

• neo-liberal, neoliberal

• “liberal”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• liberal in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• Raymond Williams (1983), “Liberal”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 179
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “liberal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “liberal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• “liberal”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “liberal”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “liberal”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “liberal”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

• Braille, Briella, braille

Borrowed from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”). First attested in the 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [li.βəˈɾal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [li.bəˈɾal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [li.beˈɾal]

• Audio (Barcelona):

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• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: li‧be‧ral

liberal m or f (masculine and feminine plural liberals)

1. generous.
2. tolerant, permissive.
3. (job) A job with economic autonomy and intellectual activity, as in liberal professionals
4. liberal, supporter of economic liberalism.

• “liberal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “liberal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “liberal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌlibəˈʁaːl/, /ˌlɪ-/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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• Rhymes: -aːl

liberal (strong nominative masculine singular liberaler, comparative liberaler, superlative am liberalsten)

1. liberal; permissive; allowing personal freedoms

   Seine Eltern waren streng katholische Kirchgänger, aber liberal gegenüber ihren Kindern.

   His parents were strict Catholic church-goers, but were liberal towards their children.

2. (politics) libertarian; liberal in the traditional sense (see usage notes below)

   Die FDP ist die wichtigste liberale Partei in Deutschland.

   The FDP is Germany’s most important libertarian party.

• Liberale Parteien (“libertarian/liberal parties”) in German-speaking Europe are associated with support for free-market economy and small government. These parties most often represent the centre or even the centre-right of the political spectrum. The sense “left-wing”, which English liberal now often has, does not exist in the German word. When used of particular policies, German liberal means “permissive, rejecting legal restraints”. Thus, for example, left-wing parties are more likely to be liberal with regard to abortion, while right-wing parties are more likely to be liberal with regard to arms sales.

• liberalisieren
• Liberalismus

• “liberal” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “liberal” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

From Dutch liberaal, from Middle French [Term?] (Modern French libéral), from Old French liberal, from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /libəˈral/ [li.bəˈral]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: li‧be‧ral

libêral (comparative lebih liberal, superlative paling liberal)

1. liberal:
   1. widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive
   2. (politics) open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism

• “liberal”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Borrowed from English liberal, from Old French liberal, from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• (schwa-variety) IPA^(key): /ˈlibərəl/ [ˈli.bə.rəl] (English-based)
• Rhymes: -ibərəl
• Hyphenation: li‧be‧ral

liberal (comparative lebih liberal, superlative paling liberal)

1. liberal^[1]
   1. widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive
   2. (politics) open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical or modern liberalism

• "liberal" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017

From French libéral, from Latin liberalis.

liberal (masculine and feminine liberal, neuter liberalt, definite singular and plural liberale)

1. liberal

• “liberal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “liberal” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From French libéral, from Latin līberālis.

liberal (neuter liberalt, definite singular and plural liberale)

1. liberal

• “liberal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

liberal m (oblique and nominative feminine singular liberale)

1. appropriate for a free person
2. generous; giving

• → English: liberal
• French: libéral

Borrowed from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: li‧be‧ral

liberal m or f (plural liberais)

1. liberal, generous, tolerant
2. (politics) liberal

• liberalmente
• liberaloide

liberal m or f by sense (plural liberais)

1. (politics) liberal

In Brazil, the political sense of "liberal" is used to describe supporters of economic freedom, like classical liberals.

• “liberal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “liberal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• либерал (liberal) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Borrowed from French libéral, from Latin liberalis. Equivalent to liber +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /libeˈral/
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: li‧be‧ral

liberal m or n (feminine singular liberală, masculine plural liberali, feminine/neuter plural liberale)

1. liberal

• liberalism
• liberalitate

From lȉberālan.

• IPA^(key): /liběraːl/
• Hyphenation: li‧be‧ral

libèrāl m anim (Cyrillic spelling либѐра̄л)

1. liberal

• “liberal”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

From Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• IPA^(key): /libeˈɾal/ [li.β̞eˈɾal]

• Audio (Colombia):

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• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: li‧be‧ral

liberal m or f (masculine and feminine plural liberales)

1. liberal (clarification of this definition is needed.)
2. (US politics) liberal
3. (Rioplatense) libertarian

liberal m or f by sense (plural liberales)

1. liberal
2. (US politics) liberal
3. (Rioplatense) libertarian

• In Latin America and Spain, the political sense of "liberal" is used to describe supporters of economic freedom, like classical liberals.

• “liberal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”).

• Audio:

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liberal (comparative liberalare, superlative liberalast)

1. liberal
2. (politics) of or pertaining to the Liberals (Liberalerna (L))

liberal c

1. a liberal
2. (politics) a member or supporter of the Liberals (Liberalerna (L))

   Synonym: (historical) folkpartist

Formed as Folkpartiet (the People's Party) in 1934, then renamed to Folkpartiet liberalerna (the Liberal People's Party) in 1990, and then renamed to Liberalerna (the Liberals) in 2015.

• liberalisera
• liberalism
• liberalistisk
• liberalitet

• centerpartist (“member or supporter of the Centre Party (Centerpartiet (C))”)
• folkpartist (“member or supporter of the People's Party (Folkpartiet (FP)) (historical – now called the Liberals)”)
• kristdemokrat (“member or supporter of the Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna (KD))”)
• miljöpartist (“member or supporter of the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de gröna (MP))”)
• moderat (“member or supporter of the Moderate Party (Moderata samlingspartiet (M))”)
• piratpartist (“member or supporter of the Pirate Party (Piratpartiet (PP))”)
• socialdemokrat (“member or supporter of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna (S))”)
• sosse (“colloquially, member or supporter of the Social Democrats”)
• sverigedemokrat (“member or supporter of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna (SD))”)
• vänsterpartist (“member or supporter of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet (V))”)

• liberal in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• liberal in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• liberal in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Borrowed from Spanish liberal.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /libeˈɾal/ [lɪ.bɛˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: li‧be‧ral

liberál (Baybayin spelling ᜎᜒᜊᜒᜇᜎ᜔)

1. liberal

From French libéral.

liberal

1. liberal