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

Examples of freelancer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As of Sunday afternoon, the two sides were still engaging on issues including salary minimums, health care options for trans workers and the union’s desire to convert long-term freelancers into staff members. —Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 May 2024

Times editors have assigned around 20 reporters and freelancers across New York City in the past weeks to cover firsthand what’s happening at Columbia, City College, New York University, Fordham and elsewhere. —Edmund Lee, New York Times, 3 May 2024

Cutting environmental reporters loose to work as freelancers can leave them isolated in a different kind of way. —Justine Calma, The Verge, 3 May 2024

The Times will also have reporters and freelancers lining up overnight to secure seats in overflow rooms, where reporters watch the proceedings on monitors. —Terence McGinley, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024

Arizona economy:With Arizona layoffs slowing, state's economic outlook is solid, experts say Who is hiring freelancers? —The Arizona Republic, 2 Apr. 2024

On Tuesday, The Washington Post published a report raising serious questions about a separate attack, a January 7 missile strike that claimed the lives of two Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers. —Oliver Darcy, CNN, 20 Mar. 2024

Many were freelancers or worked for local outlets, with little of the protection usually afforded to international reporters. —Joe Snell, Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2024

The freelancer’s face was burned and his jaw was split open. —Hazem Balousha, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined at sense 1