Word.ws English Dictionary

freeman

/ˈfɹiː.mən/

freeman noun: a person who is not a serf or slave.

Noun

freeman (plural freemen)

  1. (historical, usually) A person who is not a serf or slave.
    • [Editor David W. Blight said:] Deeply in need of father figures and spiritual hope, and “religiously seeking knowledge,” as he recalled it, the slave boy [the young Frederick Douglass] turned to a religious black man, a freeman named Charles Lawson, who worked as a drayman for a rope maker and...1997 [1797], David W. Blight, “Editor's Introduction: The Peculiar Dialogue Between Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass”, in Caleb Bingham, edited by David W. Blight, The Columbian Orator...
  2. (historical) A burgher with full freedom of a city, as opposed to nobles, outsiders, bondsmen, and others.
  3. A person who has received an honorary freedom of a city.
  4. (usually) A person who is a citizen of a free country, as opposed to a subject of a tyranny or totalitarian dictatorship.
    • There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, republished in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1862, OCLC 5091562, pages 7–8
  5. (Australia, historical) A person who immigrated to Australia freely, as opposed to those transported as convicts, or such a transported convict who has regained his freedom.
  6. (Canada, US, historical) An independent furtaker.

Proper noun capitalized: Freeman

Freeman (countable and uncountable, plural Freemans)

  1. (countable) A surname.
    • It appears that Drs. Jones and Freeman account for the arch over the hagioscope at St. David's by saying, though without citing authorities, that there was a door there originally.1886, Miss M. A. R. Tucker, “St. David's”, in Walford's Antiquarian: A Magazine & Bibliographical Review
    1. An English surname from Middle English.
    2. A freed slave surname originating as an occupation.
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  3. An unincorporated community in Early County, Georgia.
  4. An unincorporated community in Kane County, Illinois.
  5. An unincorporated community in Clay Township, Owen County, Indiana.
  6. A township in Clare County, Michigan.
  7. A township in Freeborn County, Minnesota.
  8. A city in Hutchinson County, South Dakota.
  9. An unincorporated community in Spokane County, Washington.
  10. A town in Crawford County, Wisconsin.
  11. An unincorporated community in the town of Langlade, Langlade County, Wisconsin.

freeman meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

freeman in Hindi

फ्रीमैन

freeman in Marathi

फ्रीमन

freeman in Urdu

فری مین

freeman in Bengali

ফ্রিম্যান
More languagesFewer languages
freeman in Telugu
ఫ్రీమాన్
freeman in Malayalam
ഫ്രീമാൻ
freeman in Kannada
ಫ್ರೀಮ್ಯಾನ್, ಫ್ರೀಮನ್
freeman in Punjabi
ਫ੍ਰੀਮੈਨ
freeman in Gujarati
ફ્રીમેન
freeman in Odia
ଫ୍ରିମ୍ଯ଼ାନ

Antonyms of freeman

Forms of freeman

Noun
pluralfreemen
Proper noun
pluralFreemans
alternative formFreemon

Plural of freeman: freemen

Origin of freeman

From Old English frēomann, equivalent to free + -man and paralleled by similar constructions in other Germanic languages. Doublet of preman.

* Proprialisation of freeman. From originating as a freeman (instead of a serf, indentured, or some other status) * free + man. A surname taken up by freed slaves.

Words formed from freeman

Words that rhyme with freeman

Questions about freeman

What does freeman mean?
Freeman means a person who is not a serf or slave.
What is freeman in Hindi?
Freeman in Hindi is फ्रीमैन. See Freeman meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is freeman?
Freeman can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce freeman?
Freeman is pronounced /ˈfɹiː.mən/.
What is the plural of freeman?
The plural of freeman is freemen.

Words near freeman in the dictionary

  1. Freelove
  2. Freeloves
  3. Freels
  4. freely
  5. freemail
  6. freeman
  7. freeman on the land
  8. Freeman-Sheldon syndrome
  9. Freemans
  10. Freemans Reach
  11. Freemans Waterhole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freeman (page history and authors); Freeman (page history and authors); freeman (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeman (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: EN-AU ck1 freeman.ogg.

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