Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not governed by a foreign power; self-governing.
- adjective Free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or others; self-reliant.
- adjective Not determined or influenced by someone or something else; not contingent.
- adjective Affiliated with or loyal to no one political party or organization.
- adjective Not dependent on or affiliated with a larger or controlling entity.
- adjective Not relying on others for support, care, or funds; self-supporting.
- adjective Providing or being sufficient income to enable one to live without working.
- adjective Not dependent on other variables.
- adjective Of or relating to a system of equations no one of which can be derived from another equation in the system.
- adjective Of or relating to the 17th-century English Independents.
- noun One that is independent, especially a voter, officeholder, or political candidate who is not committed to a political party.
- noun A member of a movement in England in the 17th century advocating the political and religious independence of individual congregations.
- noun Chiefly British A Congregationalist.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not dependent; not requiring the support or not subject to the control or controlling influence of others; not relying on others for direction or guidance; not subordinate; of things, not standing in a relation of dependence to something else: used absolutely or followed by of, formerly sometimes by on: as, a person's fortunes in life are quite independent of the configuration of the planets at his nativity.
- Not due to or connected with dependence; pertaining to or permitting freedom of action; free of control or restraint: as, an independent income, estate, or position; independent action.
- Not subject to bias or influence; self-directing.
- Proceeding from or expressive of a spirit of independence; free; easy; self-confident; bold; unconstrained: as, an independent air or manner.
- Irrespective; exclusive; without taking note or notice: followed by of.
- [capitalized] Of or pertaining to the Independents or Congregationalists; belonging to the Independents.
- In mathematics, not depending upon another for its value: said of a quantity or function.
- Having a competency; able to live well without labor; well-to-do.
- noun One who acts with independence; one who acts in accordance with his own will, judgment, or conscience.
- noun [capitalized] Eccles., one who maintains the principles of independency, or the freedom of the local church from external control; specifically, in England, a name given to a Congregationalist.
- noun [cap. or lowercase] In politics: One who acts independently of any organized party; one who opposes or supports measures or men on independent grounds.
- noun One of an organized party assuming the name “Independent”; specifically, in United States politics, a member of the party otherwise called the Greenback party.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not dependent; free; not subject to control by others; not relying on others; not subordinate.
- adjective Affording a comfortable livelihood.
- adjective Not subject to bias or influence; not obsequious; self-directing.
- adjective Expressing or indicating the feeling of independence; free; easy; bold; unconstrained.
- adjective Separate from; exclusive; irrespective.
- adjective (Eccl.) Belonging or pertaining to, or holding to the doctrines or methods of, the Independents.
- adjective (Math.) Not dependent upon another quantity in respect to value or rate of variation; -- said of quantities or functions.
- adjective (U. S. Politics) Not bound by party; exercising a free choice in voting with either or any party.
- adjective (Mil.) one not incorporated in any regiment.
- adjective a stop watch having a second hand driven by a separate set of wheels, springs, etc., for timing to a fraction of a second.
- adjective (Math.) See Dependent variable, under
Dependent . - noun (Eccl.) One who believes that an organized Christian church is complete in itself, competent to self-government, and independent of all ecclesiastical authority.
- noun (Politics) One who does not acknowledge an obligation to support a party's candidate under all circumstances; one who exercises liberty in voting.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective not
dependent ; notcontingent or depending on something else; free - adjective politics not affiliated with any
political party - noun A
candidate orvoter not affiliated with anypolitical party , a free thinker, free of a party platform. - noun A
neutral oruncommitted person.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a neutral or uncommitted person (especially in politics)
- adjective (of a clause) capable of standing syntactically alone as a complete sentence
- adjective free from external control and constraint
- adjective (of political bodies) not controlled by outside forces
- noun a writer or artist who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them
- adjective not controlled by a party or interest group
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word independent.
Examples
-
The term 'independent journalist' here usually refers to reporters for a news source other than those owned by the state or political parties, though this does not necessarily mean they are free of outside interests.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Maurice Chammah 2012
-
A Money & Investing article on Wednesday mistakenly used the word independent instead of initial.
-
Canada will remain independent from the United States to the extent it will be able to develop its inner resources in men, in ideas and in ideals.
Why Confederation? 1966
-
The camera and medical device maker says outside lawyers and accountants will be part of what it called an independent review.
Ousted Olympus CEO Dismisses Internal Review Associated Press 2011
-
■ Remember that the word "independent" sounds sweet, but can taste pretty sour.
It's worth remembering: press freedom is a messy business 2011
-
It's a title independent analyst John Avalon gives to someone on the far right and on the far left who he says is trying to divide us rather than unite us.
-
It's a title independent analyst John Avlon gives to someone on the far right and the far left who he says is trying to divide us rather than unite us.
-
The contract said that from the day we finished our album, Transcon had exactly one year to release our album in the United States or we would have the right to find ourselves a separate American label independent of Pearlman and Transcon.
Out of Sync Lance Bass 2007
-
The contract said that from the day we finished our album, Transcon had exactly one year to release our album in the United States or we would have the right to find ourselves a separate American label independent of Pearlman and Transcon.
Out of Sync Lance Bass 2007
-
The Miami Herald doing what they described as their independent analysis of all of the votes, and they concluded that if there was a fair count, Al Gore would carry Florida by 23,000 votes.
Prolagus commented on the word independent
The great mother is a virgin, too, in a sense other than intended by the patriarchate, which later misunderstood her as the symbol of chastity. Precisely in virtue of her fruitfulness, she is a virgin, that is, unrelated and not dependent
upon any man. In Sanskrit, "independent woman" is a synonym for a harlot.
(The Origins and History of Consciousness, by Erich Neumann)
September 10, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word independent
Ain't no shame in the game!
September 10, 2008