liberty

Meanings

1. 1noununcountableformal

   Freedom to live, think, speak, and act without unjust or excessive control.

   Grammar: Usually uncountable in general statements; more formal than freedom in legal or political contexts.

   Patterns

   • personal liberty
   • defend liberty
   • loss of liberty
   • at liberty

   The constitution protects individual liberty against state power.

   He valued the liberty to read and travel without interference.

   People at liberty can make choices that prisoners cannot.

2. 2nouncountableformallegal

   A particular legal or moral right enjoyed by people in a society.

   Grammar: Countable; common in the plural, especially civil liberties and personal liberties.

   Patterns

   • civil liberties
   • basic liberties
   • protect liberties
   • threaten liberties

   The court case tested whether the law invaded basic liberties.

   Freedom of worship is one of the country's oldest liberties.

   New technology can protect liberties or endanger them.

3. 3nounidiomdisapproving

   Behavior that takes more freedom than is appropriate or respectful.

   Grammar: Appears mainly in take liberties, often with with and a person, story, or rule.

   Patterns

   • take liberties with someone
   • take liberties with something
   • take too many liberties

   The film takes liberties with the novel's ending.

   Do not take liberties with a colleague's time by arriving late every day.

   The adaptation took liberties, but it kept the heroine's courage.

Word forms

Common combinations

civil liberties

The group sued, saying the rule threatened civil liberties.

personal liberty

Quarantine limited personal liberty to protect public health.

take liberties

A faithful biography should not take liberties with known facts.

Synonyms and how they differ

freedom

Freedom is the broad everyday word; liberty is often formal, legal, or political.

autonomy

Autonomy stresses self-government or control over one's own choices, narrower than general liberty.

license

License can mean excessive freedom; use it carefully because it may imply lack of restraint.

Opposites

Word family

liberate verb

To set free from control, prison, or oppression.

liberation noun

The act of freeing or the state of being freed.

liberal adjective

Supporting broad freedoms and openness to change; related historically but not identical.

Commonly confused: liberty or freedom?

Practice

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