Word.ws English Dictionary

freedman

[ˈfɹiːdmæn]

freedman noun: a man who has been released from a condition of slavery.

Noun

freedman (plural freedmen)

  1. A man who has been released from a condition of slavery.
    • The nomen belonged to all members of a gens and to all those attached to it (women, clients, and freedmen included).1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xv
    • Education was a high priority for Appalachian freedmen and freedwomen just as it was for blacks throughout the Reconstruction South.2001, John C. Inscoe, “Introduction”, in Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation, page 7

Proper noun capitalized: Freedman

Freedman (plural Freedmans)

  1. A German and Jewish surname from German.
  2. (alternative) Alternative form of Friedman.
  3. A freed slave surname originating as an occupation.

freedman meaning in Arabic

freedman in Arabic

man who has been released from slavery
مَعْتُوق maʕtūq

Forms of freedman

Noun
pluralfreedmen
Proper noun
pluralFreedmans

Plural of freedman: freedmen

Origin of freedman

From freed + man.

* Anglicization of German Friedmann * Corruption of Friedman * freed + man. A surname taken up by freed slaves.

Words formed from freedman

Questions about freedman

What does freedman mean?
Freedman means a man who has been released from a condition of slavery.
What is freedman in Arabic?
Freedman in Arabic is مَعْتُوق (maʕtūq). See Freedman meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is freedman?
Freedman can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce freedman?
Freedman is pronounced [ˈfɹiːdmæn].
What is the plural of freedman?
The plural of freedman is freedmen.

Words near freedman in the dictionary

  1. freedived
  2. freediver
  3. freedivers
  4. freedives
  5. freediving
  6. freedman
  7. Freedmans
  8. freedmanship
  9. freedmen
  10. freedom
  11. freedom ain't free

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freedman (page history and authors); Freedman (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-freedman.wav.

Cite this entry: “freedman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freedman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.