liberty

Syllables: lib·er·ty/ˈlɪbəti/UK/ˈlɪbəti/

liberty noun: the condition of being free.

Noun (1)

liberty (countable and uncountable, plural liberties)

The condition of being free.
- The army is here, your liberty is assured.
- Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"^([sic])1863 November 19, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address_(Nicolay_draft)), near Soldiers' National Cemetery, →LCCN, Nicolay draft...
The condition of being free from imprisonment, slavery or forced labour.
- The prisoners gained their liberty from an underground tunnel.
The condition of being free to act, believe or express oneself as one chooses.
- Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
- I'd gie my ſhoon frae aff my feet, / To taſte ſic fruit, I ſwear, man. / Syne let us pray, auld England may / Sure plant this far-famed tree, man; / And blythe we'll ſing, and hail the day / That gave us liberty, man.1869, Robert Burns, “The Tree of Liberty”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems), Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, →OCLC, page 360
Freedom from excessive government control.
- The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23
A short period when a sailor is allowed ashore.
- We're going on a three-day liberty as soon as we dock.
(often, plural) A breach of social convention.
- You needn't take such liberties.
(historical) A local division of government administration in medieval England.
(go) An empty space next to a group of stones of the same color.

Proper noun capitalized: Liberty

Liberty (countable and uncountable, plural Libertys)

A surname from French.
A freed slave surname originating as an occupation.
A female given name from English.
- Then last came Liberty. What a name, Mason always thought. It was an invention of her mother's―a flighty woman who had run away from Porter with a hippie stereo salesman eight and a half years ago and discovered immediately afterward that she was two months pregnant.1985, Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, →ISBN, page 171
A male given name from English.
A town, the county seat of Union County, Indiana.
A minor city in Montgomery County, Kansas.
A city, the county seat of Casey County, Kentucky.
A town, the county seat of Amite County, Mississippi.
A city, the county seat of Clay County, Missouri.
A town and village therein, in Sullivan County, New York.
A city, the county seat of Liberty County, Texas.
A town in Grant County, Wisconsin.

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A town in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
A town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.
A town and unincorporated community therein, in Vernon County, Wisconsin.
A number of townships in the United States, listed under Liberty Township.

Noun (2) capitalized: Liberty

Liberty (uncountable)

Used attributively to designate various items (especially textiles) sold by (or characteristic of) the Liberty department store in Regent Street, London.
- It had long been dismantled of the Liberty curtains, Persian rugs, and cheap Japaneseries.1894, William John Locke, At the Gate of Samaria
- The piano was draped in Liberty silk and so was the chimney-piece.1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 40, in Of Human Bondage

liberty meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

liberty in Hindi

condition of being free: आज़ादी āzādī

liberty in Tamil

எழுவுதி, தன்னுரிமை, தனியுரிமை, விடுதலை, அடிமைத்தளை நீக்கம், தன் செயலுரிமை

liberty in Urdu

condition of being free: آزادی āzādī

liberty in Bengali

condition of being free: স্বাধীনতা śadhinota, আজাদি ajadi

More languagesFewer languages

liberty in Malayalam: സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം svātantryaṁ
liberty in Kannada: ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ, ಅನಿರ್ಬಂಧಿತ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ, ನೆಸೆ, ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ
liberty in Arabic: حُرِيَّة ḥuriyya
liberty in Persian: آزادی âzâdi
liberty in Thai: เสรีภาพ sěe-rii-pâap
liberty in Vietnamese: tự do, khí
liberty in Myanmar: လွတ်လပ်ခွင့် lwatlaphkwang.

Examples of liberty in a sentence

But as the philosopher Isaiah Berlin sagely pointed out, liberty for wolves means death to lambs.2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, quoting Isaiah Berlin, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt:
[Edmund] Burke continued to fight for liberty later on in life.2014 July 5, “Freedom fighter”, in The Economist, volume 412, number 8894:

All 40 example sentences with liberty

Synonyms of liberty

freedom

Forms of liberty

Noun
plural	liberties
alternative form (obsolete)	libertie
Proper noun
plural	Libertys

Plural of liberty: liberties

Origin of liberty

From Middle English liberte, from Old French liberté, from Latin libertas (“freedom”), from liber (“free”); see liberal.

From liberty.

Phrases with liberty

13 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about liberty

What does liberty mean?: Liberty means the condition of being free.
What is liberty in Hindi?: Liberty in Hindi is आज़ादी (āzādī). See Liberty meaning in Hindi.
How do you use liberty in a sentence?: But as the philosopher Isaiah Berlin sagely pointed out, liberty for wolves means death to lambs.
What part of speech is liberty?: Liberty can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce liberty?: Liberty is pronounced /ˈlɪbəti/ (UK).
What is the plural of liberty?: The plural of liberty is liberties.

Words near liberty in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: liberty (page history and authors); Liberty (page history and authors); liberty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); liberty (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-liberty.ogg.

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