unfettered

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

Definition of unfettered

:free, unrestrained

unfettered access

See unfettered defined for English-language learners

unfettered was our Word of the Day on 06/07/2012. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of unfettered from the Web

Grenfell has become a grisly metaphor for all that is squalid about the British capital, unfettered free-market capitalism, and society at large.

— krista stevens, Longreads, "Grenfell Tower: London, England’s ‘Katrina Moment’," 24 Aug. 2017
The WMATA's guidelines give the agency unfettered discretion to decide which positions are too controversial to appear in ads, and that seems hard to square with the First Amendment.

— timothy b. lee, Ars Technica, "DC’s transit agency rejected ads touting the First Amendment (really)," 11 Aug. 2017
But the Swiss model doesn’t include the unfettered EU access for the finance sector that’s so important to the U.K. And the EU might be reluctant to negotiate an even more complex version of Switzerland’s arrangement.

— simon kennedy, Bloomberg.com, "Britain’s Not-So-Sweet Options for an EU Trade Deal," 9 Aug. 2017
But for the unfettered truth, independent media outlets remain the No. 1 source for news on a respective team.

— richard deitsch, SI.com, "Roundtable: NFL Reporters Discuss League's Future, Players' CTE Concerns and More," 6 Aug. 2017
The only consensus among parents about the right age for a child to have unfettered access to a smartphone is that there is no magic number.

— brian x. chen, New York Times, "Google’s New Parental Control App Has a Flaw: Puberty," 26 July 2017
But putting another check into the system—removing one person's unfettered ability to destroy the world—will create another essential, lasting safeguard for the U.S. and the planet.

— the editors, Scientific American, "No One Should Have Sole Authority to Launch a Nuclear Attack," 24 July 2017
Say goodbye to Evite, Shutterfly, to personal blogs, to eBay, and perhaps to an unfettered social media.

— david kravets, Ars Technica, "Animal rights? Monkey selfie case may undo evolution of the Internet," 15 July 2017
That has meant a great deal of local autonomy for Hong Kong, including an independent judicial system, unfettered capitalism, a free press, and personal freedom of expression.

— The Christian Science Monitor, "Hong Kong’s uneasy deal with China," 2 July 2017

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."