How to Use freethinker in a Sentence

freethinker

noun
  • Noah was, even then, according to friends, a pacifist and a freethinker.
    Scott Cacciola, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2016
  • The writing is poised and tidy as well—too tidy, in fact, for a novel whose allegiances are with rebels and freethinkers.
    Sam Sacks, WSJ, 15 Sep. 2017
  • Leia started out as a bold freethinker with ultra-supportive parents, and ended the same with a cool holster.
    Darren Franich, EW.com, 22 June 2022
  • Stanton, like some of the suffragists, was a freethinker who did not attend church and saw Christianity as hostile to women’s rights.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Aug. 2020
  • The 61-year-old, the oldest in the group, described himself as a freethinker and a proud Russian who wanted to show Ukrainians that not all Russians supported the war — in fact, there were some like him who would fight on their side.
    Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2022
  • Marie-Aurore de Saxe, a French noblewoman and freethinker, was painted in the guise of Diana, the huntress, wearing a leopard-print gown with billowing sleeves and a plunging bosom.
    Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2022
  • His chief contribution is to put on center stage a cast of skeptics and freethinkers whom historians often relegate to the wings.
    D.g. Hart, WSJ, 22 Aug. 2018
  • The central conflict in La Belle Sauvage pits freethinkers against fanatics, which is not simply a conflict between atheists and believers.
    Sarah Jones, New Republic, 30 Oct. 2017
  • When charges of financial impropriety are levied against the Bakkers, Falwell, portraying himself as the couple’s ally, relies on the scandal to rid himself and the movement of its pesky freethinker.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 24 Sep. 2021
  • For those three years, the iconoclast, freethinker and reluctant voice of a generation proclaimed faith in salvation by Jesus Christ (despite his Jewish upbringing), with lyrics that drew a line in the sand.
    Jon Pareles, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2017
  • Felicie, an intellectual freethinker openly critical of the Fascist regime, headed to California in 1940 on the last steamship to sail from Rhodes.
    Heller McAlpin, WSJ, 8 Sep. 2022
  • For the last three years, atheist writers, freethinkers, foreigners, religious minorities, gay rights activists and others have been terrorized and killed in Bangladesh by shadowy figures who have struck with machetes and sped off on motorbikes.
    Geeta Anand and Julfikar Ali Manik, New York Times, 8 June 2016
  • New intriguing documentary Spaceship Earth follows the ragtag group of freethinkers who became famous for the creation of Biosphere 2, a manmade vivarium in the middle of the desert meant to test whether humans could sustain life on another planet.
    Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 8 May 2020
  • Because, as well as being a pioneering logician, Russell was an uncompromising freethinker—and an early advocate of free love.
    The Economist, 16 Apr. 2020
  • Nineteenth-century freethinkers, such as Susan B. Anthony, were leading advocates of abolitionism and feminism.
    Jeet Heer, The New Republic, 3 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'freethinker.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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