unfettered

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adjective

un·​fet·​tered ˌən-ˈfe-tərd 

: not controlled or restricted : free, unrestrained

… unfettered access to the Senate.

—Joshua Miller

… an approach to reading which combined passion and empathy with free-ranging enthusiasm and unfettered curiosity.

—Jonathan Keates

If popular government is about anything, it is about the unfettered right of the voters to choose their leaders.

—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

… few voices in modern American intellectual life have challenged the primacy of the unfettered individual.

—Walter Shapiro

unfettered

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past tense and past participle of unfetter

Did you know?

A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (such as the kind sometimes used on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. Fetter and unfetter both function as verbs in English with contrasting literal meanings having to do with the putting on of and freeing from fetters; they likewise have contrasting figurative extensions having to do with the depriving and granting of freedom. The adjective unfettered resides mostly in the figurative, with the word typically describing someone or something unrestrained in progress or spirit. This is how Irish author James Joyce used the word in his 1916 autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man when the character of Cranly recalls to his best friend Stephen what he (Stephen) said he wishes to do in life: "To discover the mode of life or of art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom."

Examples of unfettered in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Milei has also embraced data centers and a largely unfettered approach to artificial intelligence regulation, while Pope Leo's inaugural encyclical called for ethical caution and safeguards to protect human dignity in the age of AI. — Carrie Kahn, NPR, 7 Nov. 2026

Now Musk and his businesses could face a challenging time ahead as Democrats are expected to rein in the unfettered growth of AI businesses and likely expose him and his companies in particular to more congressional and regulatory scrutiny. — Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2026

Trump has been among the biggest champions of unfettered growth for AI. — David Goldman, CNN Money, 4 Nov. 2026

Conference expansion and realignment, as well as an unfettered transfer portal, has college football looking more and more like the NFL by the day, and that's by design. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 17 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1602, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for unfettered

• bettered
• fettered
• lettered
• unlettered

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