Adjective: independent ,in-di'pen-dunt- Free from external control and constraint
"fiercely independent individualism"; "an independent mind"; "a series of independent judgments" - (of political bodies) not controlled by outside forces
"an independent judiciary"; - autonomous, self-governing, sovereign - Not controlled by a party or interest group
"The independent candidate ran without backing from major political parties" - (of a clause) capable of standing syntactically alone as a complete sentence
"the independent clause in a complex sentence has at least a subject and a verb"; - main - Not connected or affected by each other
"a set of independent events" Noun: independent ,in-di'pen-dunt- A neutral or uncommitted person (especially in politics)
"As an independent, he refused to align with either party in the debate"; - mugwump [N. Amer], fencesitter - A writer or artist who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them
"The magazine hired an independent to write the cover story"; - freelancer, freelance, self-employed person
Derived forms: independents See also: autarkic, autarkical, autonomous, breakaway, commutative, fissiparous, free, free-living, independence, independency, indie, nonparasitic, nonpartisan, nonpartizan [rare], nonsymbiotic, self-directed, self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-sufficing, self-supporting, self-sustaining, separate, separatist, single-handed, strong-minded, unaffiliated, unconditional Type of: individualist, worker Antonym: dependent Encyclopedia: Independent, identically distributed |