unfettered

adjective un·fet·tered \ ˌən-ˈfe-tərd \

|Updated on: 18 Aug 2018

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of unfettered

: free, unrestrained

unfettered access

See unfettered defined for English-language learners

unfettered was our Word of the Day on 05/19/2018. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of unfettered from the Web

But the burgeoning Progressive movement sought to make casting ballots a peaceful and orderly experience unfettered by electioneering.

— kate keller, Smithsonian, "Why Are There Laws That Restrict What People Can Wear to the Polls?," 15 June 2018
Its unfettered access drew fans and journalists from all over the world.

— frank fitzpatrick, Philly.com, "Muhammad Ali's secluded Pa. camp and the fight to save it, led by John Madden's son," 3 July 2018
Business‘Right to Yelp’: New laws would protect reviewers from lawsuits The decision comes as many online companies are reconsidering the effects of unfettered speech.

— bob egelko, SFChronicle.com, "Yelp does not have to remove users’ posts, California Supreme Court says," 2 July 2018
The unfettered polymathic openness of a Helmholtz or a Schoenberg seems comparatively rare in our age of narrow expertise.

— paul grimstad, The New Republic, "Can You Measure How Good a Song Is?," 21 June 2018
And that's what that judge by unfettered authorities.

— Fox News, "Michael Caputo: My family receives threats over Russia probe," 5 May 2018
Usually state-financed, European opera is unfettered by the financial concerns that hold sway on this side of the Atlantic.

— paul hodgins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Opera NEO blazes new trails on a shoestring, focusing on education and unpredictability," 1 July 2018
Mercury retrograde’s reputation for sowing chaos and frustration in our communication and messing up technology can give the impression that all retrograde periods are times of unfettered, anarchic destruction.

— claire comstock-gay, The Cut, "How Much Will Mars Retrograde Ruin My Life?," 26 June 2018
In late 2016, Google’s security team scrambled to fix a critical vulnerability that allowed attackers to gain unfettered root access to Android devices by using a relatively new class of exploit that manipulates data stored in memory chips.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "New RAMpage exploit revives Rowhammer attack to root Android devices," 2 July 2018

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

Did You Know?

A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (as on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. The word derives from Middle English "feter" and shares a relationship with Old English fot, meaning "foot." In current English "unfettered" typically suggests that someone or something is figuratively "unchained," or unrestrained in progress or spirit. The poet John Donne is believed to have been the first to use "unfettered" in this way, in his 1601 work The Progress of the Soule: "To an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast / Are falling stars, and hearts thoughts, but slow pac'd."