Word.ws English Dictionary

freedom rider

Syllables: free·dom riderUK/ˈfɹiːdəm ˌɹaɪdə/US/ˈfɹidəm ˌɹaɪdɚ/

freedom rider noun: in the United States during 1961, a civil rights activist who participated in one or more trips by bus or other forms of transport, known as freedom rides, through parts of the southern U.S. to demonstrate opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.

Noun

freedom rider (plural freedom riders)

  1. (US, historical) In the United States during 1961, a civil rights activist who participated in one or more trips by bus or other forms of transport, known as freedom rides, through parts of the southern U.S. to demonstrate opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.
    • A Negro leader said today the "freedom riders" whose arrival here touched off race riots last Saturday will continue their test of Southern bus station segregation barriers. [...] [T]he Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. [...] told a news conference the group met for four hours last night and decided that...1961 May 23, “‘Freedom ride’ must continue—Rev. King”, in Sarasota Journal, volume 10, number 27, Sarasota, Fla.: Lindsay Newspapers, →OCLC, page 2, column 7
  2. (Australia, broadly, historical) A participant in a similar excursion undertaken by protesters in Australia in 1965 in opposition to unfair discrimination against Indigenous Australians.

Forms of freedom rider

pluralfreedom riders

Origin of freedom rider

From freedom ride + -er.

Questions about freedom rider

What does freedom rider mean?
Freedom rider means in the United States during 1961, a civil rights activist who participated in one or more trips by bus or other forms of transport, known as freedom rides, through parts of the southern U.S. to demonstrate opposition to racial prejudice and segregation.
What part of speech is freedom rider?
Freedom rider is a noun.
How do you pronounce freedom rider?
Freedom rider is pronounced /ˈfɹiːdəm ˌɹaɪdə/ (UK).
What is the plural of freedom rider?
The plural of freedom rider is freedom riders.

Words near freedom rider in the dictionary

  1. freedom of the press
  2. freedom of the seas
  3. freedom of thought
  4. freedom of trade
  5. freedom ride
  6. freedom rider
  7. freedom riders
  8. freedom rides
  9. freedom school
  10. freedom tickler
  11. freedom ticklers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freedom rider (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.

Last updated:

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