free world

noun, often capitalized F&W

|Updated on: 18 Jun 2018

Definition of free world

: the part of the world where democracy and capitalism or moderate socialism rather than totalitarian or Communist political and economic systems prevail

Recent Examples of free world from the Web

The setting on Sentosa was carefully staged to put both leaders on equal footing, projecting a jarring normalcy to the spectacle of a ruthless and reclusive authoritarian strolling at ease in a tropical resort with the leader of the free world.

— philip rucker, Anchorage Daily News, "In a bid for history, Trump flatters North Korea's totalitarian leader," 12 June 2018
Clinton, who was the leader of the free world at the time of the affair, chose to have an inappropriate relationship with an unpaid intern who was more than 25 years his junior.

— refinery29.com, "After His Comments On #MeToo, 2018 Should Be The Year We Cancel Bill Clinton," 5 June 2018
With the fate of the free world depending on the ability of Allied armed forces to land troops and tanks on beaches, the LST was designed in late 1941 and soon 1,051 were produced by American shipyards working around the clock.

— phoebe wall howard, Detroit Free Press, "Ship that landed on D-Day, then hauled autos, now a museum in Muskegon," 24 May 2018
Because those are wonderful qualities for comedians and terrible qualities for free world leaders.

— emily yahr, chicagotribune.com, "Late-night hosts ridicule the outrage over Michelle Wolf's correspondents' dinner speech," 1 May 2018
But then, the wedding of the biracial former actress to Prince Harry is unlikely to create a British constitutional crisis or alter the fate of the free world.

— mary carole mccauley, baltimoresun.com, "Meghan Markle isn't the first American to marry a British royal. Meet Baltimore's Wallis Simpson.," 16 May 2018
Founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie, the organization became a bipartisan rallying center for the free world in the great ideological struggles of the 20th-century first against Nazism, and then against totalitarian Communism.

— john fonte, National Review, "Freedom House Turns Partisan," 15 Feb. 2018
Nothing makes good drama like the leader of the free world engaged in a Twitter battle with a couple of African-American rappers and Legend, a 10-time Grammy-winning R&B star who recently played Jesus Christ on TV.

— dahleen glanton, chicagotribune.com, "Conservatives may be misreading Kanye West and his pro-Trump tweets," 1 May 2018
Then there was the scrabble of a key at a lock, and the other door, the one facing him, that led to the free world, opened.

— andrew liptak, The Verge, "A prisoner is given a deal he can’t refuse in an excerpt from S.J. Morden’s sci-fi novel One Way," 25 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'free world.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.