as in kook
a person who forms his or her own opinions about important subjects (such as religion and politics) instead of accepting what other people say
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Recent Examples of freethinker
By this time, however, even in cases where freethinkers were convicted of blasphemy, judges appeared to offer leniency.
—
Kristina M. Lee, The Conversation, 18 Oct. 2024
The boys, including brilliant freethinker Melchior (Marshall) and his deaf friend Moritz (Joseph Saraceni), suffer through rote Latin learning with little room for creative thought.
—Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 2 Mar. 2024
As a freethinker who had run afoul of both Judaism and Christianity, Spinoza knew that bigotry and fanaticism weren’t just imposed on the people; they were also imposed by the people.
—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
But get this: the freethinkers who dreamed up this potential flood tide work not out of Honda's Japanese R&D center and studio but its American think tank and design enclave in Southern California.
—Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 15 June 2023
See All Example Sentences for freethinker
Kristina M. Lee, The Conversation, 18 Oct. 2024
The boys, including brilliant freethinker Melchior (Marshall) and his deaf friend Moritz (Joseph Saraceni), suffer through rote Latin learning with little room for creative thought.
—Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 2 Mar. 2024
As a freethinker who had run afoul of both Judaism and Christianity, Spinoza knew that bigotry and fanaticism weren’t just imposed on the people; they were also imposed by the people.
—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
But get this: the freethinkers who dreamed up this potential flood tide work not out of Honda's Japanese R&D center and studio but its American think tank and design enclave in Southern California.
—Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 15 June 2023
See All Example Sentences for freethinker
Recent Examples of Synonyms for freethinker
Noun
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This is not a game; until the kooks and zealots rampaging over the public health infrastructure are constrained, many people could die.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
9 July 2025
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Listen to your doctor, not kooks like Bobby Kennedy and Dave Weldon.—
New York Daily News,
Twin Cities,
21 Mar. 2025
Noun
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But Gunn’s heart is with the weirdos who soldier on.—
Jake Coyle,
Mercury News,
10 July 2025
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Such a part of the Rick experience is the crowd, a band of fashion weirdos clad in Kiss boots, and standing among them in crutches felt natural in this context.—
Julissa James,
Los Angeles Times,
2 July 2025
Noun
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The father, Buddy Smart (Bryan Cranston), is the clan’s second-rate crackpot visionary, a cockeyed optimist who dresses in fuddy-duddy jackets and never knows where the next paycheck is coming from.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
11 June 2025
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It was also designed to look for evidence of continental drift – an idea that was then just starting to shift out of crackpot territory and into the scientific mainstream.—
David Szondy
June 08,
New Atlas,
8 June 2025
Noun
-
What choice would a young reactionary iconoclast have but to veer right?—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
9 July 2025
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With no knock on a standard-issue C8 Corvette, the ZR1 is a serious target for collectors, including iconoclasts who prefer to zig where others zag.—
Lawrence Ulrich,
Robb Report,
25 June 2025
Noun
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Ra’s decades-long adherence to this personal mythology, along with his air of serene bemusement and his extravagant robes and headdresses, led to his popular image as a colorful eccentric.—
Ekow Eshun
July 11,
Literary Hub,
11 July 2025
-
Other characters include outcasts, visionaries and eccentrics — all of whom live on the margins as unseen — a former priest, a girl trapped in working her family’s candy stand, a woman who learned preaching from her brother and is a caretaker for her dying housemate.—
Mary Ann Grossmann,
Twin Cities,
18 May 2025
Noun
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Indeed, exercise is for everyone, from toddlers to codgers.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
23 May 2025
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For older codgers like me who prefer golf clubs to nightclubs, a serene and charming alternative is the city of La Quinta, best known for its incomparable golf courses at PGA West and the historic La Quinta Resort & Club, another redolent whiff of Hollywood’s glorious days gone by.—
David Weiss,
Forbes.com,
8 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Although Americans are individualists, we’re still expected to go home for the holidays and to cite our parents as our greatest sources of inspiration.—
Anesce Dremen,
Longreads,
3 July 2025
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Immigration has surged, and the United States has entered an individualist, conservative epoch.—
Robert Petkoff Krish Seenivasan Quinton Kamara,
New York Times,
24 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Long a getaway for elite sun seekers and a proving ground for maverick architects, Palm Springs and the surrounding communities have become a sandbox for provenance collectors.—
Abby Montanez,
Robb Report,
3 July 2025
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Twenty years later, Frey sees himself as a maverick and dismisses the controversy with a string of expletives.—
Brendan Fitzgerald,
Longreads,
25 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Freethinker.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freethinker. Accessed 22 Jul. 2025.
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