freelancer
noun
free·lanc·er
ˈfrē-ˌlan(t)-sər
plural freelancers
1
: a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer : freelance sense 1
hired a freelancer to write the article
… there were hundreds of photographers on the scene, some on assignment, some freelancers, most of them amateurs.—Garrison Keillor
But while Renzo is the ultimate company man, a lifetime employee who reports to the same office every morning, Riccardo is the prototypical freelancer, a peripatetic problem-solver with five-dozen clients.—Bruce Schoenfeld
2
: a person who acts independently without being affiliated with or authorized by an organization : freelance sense 2b
[Anthony] Grafton contrasts public intellectuals outside and inside the universities, and he takes note of today's nostalgia for the freethinkers who lived and wrote independently of deans and classrooms. But it is good to be reminded that in that golden era of freelancers such as Wilson, H. L. Mencken, and Mary McCarthy, voices like theirs were also raised in universities.—G. W. Bowersock
Cite this Entry
“Freelancer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freelancer. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.
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