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

Fox News said no employee of or freelancer for the network penned jokes for former president Donald Trump‘s speech at Thursday night’s Al Smith Dinner fundraiser — contrary to claims Trump made on the network’s air Friday morning. —Todd Spangler, Variety, 18 Oct. 2024

However, Fox said on Friday in a statement sent to The Associated Press that none of its employees or freelancers wrote anything for Trump to read on Thursday night. —Kevin Dolak, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Oct. 2024

Their model of employing staff rather than freelancers assured us a consistent service with high-quality training and execution. —Fairchild Studio, WWD, 18 Oct. 2024

Think of influencers like partners rather than freelancers. —NBC News, 19 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined at sense 1