as in kook
a person who forms his or her own opinions about important subjects (such as religion and politics) instead of accepting what other people say
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Recent Examples of freethinker
As a freethinker who had run afoul of both Judaism and Christianity, Spinoza knew that bigotry and fanaticism weren’t just imposed on the people; they were also imposed by the people.
—
Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
In the ninth century, the irreverent freethinker Ibn al-Rawandi used the fertile intellectual climate of the Abbasid caliphate to question prophecy and holy books.
—Jacob McHangama, Foreign Affairs, 9 Feb. 2022
But get this: the freethinkers who dreamed up this potential flood tide work not out of Honda's Japanese R&D center and studio but its American think tank and design enclave in Southern California.
—Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 15 June 2023
That's the sign of a real freethinker.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2013
See All Example Sentences for freethinker
Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
In the ninth century, the irreverent freethinker Ibn al-Rawandi used the fertile intellectual climate of the Abbasid caliphate to question prophecy and holy books.
—Jacob McHangama, Foreign Affairs, 9 Feb. 2022
But get this: the freethinkers who dreamed up this potential flood tide work not out of Honda's Japanese R&D center and studio but its American think tank and design enclave in Southern California.
—Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 15 June 2023
That's the sign of a real freethinker.
—Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2013
See All Example Sentences for freethinker
Recent Examples of Synonyms for freethinker
Noun
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No flying monkey drive-by attacks or bug-eyed conspiracy kooks.—
Faisal Kutty,
Newsweek,
10 Mar. 2025
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The brand’s ready-to-wear this season felt like a conjoining of ideas in its other shows over the past few seasons, creating a kind of wearable kook.—
Julian Randall,
Essence,
3 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The Jones was for the artists, the punks, the weirdos.—
Zach Helfand,
The New Yorker,
10 Mar. 2025
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The sitcom was already packed with weirdos — Toby Huss' Artie, the Strongest Man in the World, for one — and as Little Pete's bestie Nona, she was slated to play yet another.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
27 Feb. 2025
Noun
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With Mickey 17, Pattinson doubles down (literally) on the crackpot touches and gives Bong’s follow-up to Parasite a true sense of unpredictable, undeniable lunacy.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
8 Mar. 2025
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Of course, centuries of bizarre medical solutions have proven that a small volume of patients can seemingly recover from almost any condition regardless of whatever crackpot solution is administered.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
22 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Sir Raymond Douglas Davies CBE was a remarkable iconoclast.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
20 Mar. 2025
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Their prolific, chameleonic hit rate will invite inevitable comparisons to iconoclasts like Sophie, Aphex Twin, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, but — like the greats before them — gyrofield may soon be a genre unto themselves.—
Sam Davies,
Rolling Stone,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
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Rachel does a great job conveying such collective endeavors and group dreaming, the whole circumference of people who support bands: friends of friends, drop-of-a-hat designers, stopgap agents, stall owners, dealers, grandparents with record collections, eccentrics without portfolios.—
Ian Penman,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Feb. 2025
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Would love to know what these career eccentrics make of the pomp and pageantry of the Grammys.—
August Brown,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Popular culture’s usual parade of toothless codgers and crones increasingly seemed obsolete.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
The New Yorker,
25 Nov. 2024
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Otto is also suicidal — something A Man Called Otto never sufficiently dramatizes, cheapening the codger’s despair as the film prepares for the feel-good ending to come.—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
2 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Actual Ad The ad Cambridge sent to individualists depicts rows of U.S. flags in a field, an image widely associated with military sacrifice and remembrances of war.—
Corey G. Johnson,
ProPublica,
27 Feb. 2025
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The folly of swapping him out for Ibrahimovic, football’s most brash individualist outside of Cristiano Ronaldo, was exposed in less than a year.—
Liam Twomey,
The Athletic,
6 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Further reading: Trump wants to end this GOP maverick’s political career.—
Emily Brooks,
The Hill,
13 Mar. 2025
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Since the Second World War, the United States has exercised de-facto military control over Greenland, thanks to the maverick diplomat Henrik Kauffmann, who, as Denmark’s envoy to Washington in 1941, granted the U.S. control over its security.—
Louise Bokkenheuser,
The New Yorker,
11 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Freethinker.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freethinker. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.
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