laissez-faire
noun
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The French phrase laissez faire literally means “allow to do,” with the idea being “let people do as they choose.” The origins of laissez-faire are associated with the Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists who believed that government policy should not interfere with the operation of natural economic laws. (The actual coiner of the phrase may have been French economist Vincent de Gournay, or it may have been François Quesnay, who is considered the group’s founder and leader.) The original phrase was “laissez faire, laissez passer,” with the second part meaning “let (things) pass.” Laissez-faire, which first showed up in an English context in the first half of the 19th century, can still mean “a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs,” but it is also used in broader contexts in which a “hands-off” or “anything-goes” policy or attitude is adopted. It is frequently used as an adjective meaning “favoring a ‘hands-off’ policy,” as in “laissez-faire economics.”
Examples of laissez-faire in a Sentence
Emlyn Travis, EW.com, 2 May 2025
At first, this laissez-faire approach seemed completely unrealistic to me.
—Debby Waldman, Parents, 29 Apr. 2025
Combined with David Ricardo (1772-1823), another influential British economist who expounded on the benefits of free trade with his theory of comparative advantage, by the mid-19th century laissez-faire became the central tenet to what was then a burgeoning discipline: economics.
— Made By History, Time, 28 Apr. 2025
The relatively laissez-faire strategy is more akin to the noninterventionist policies crypto investors have enjoyed in other foreign places, including the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong.
—Leigh Cuen, Forbes.com, 18 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for laissez-faire
Cite this Entry
“Laissez-faire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laissez-faire. Accessed 9 May. 2025.
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