freethinkers

noun

plural of freethinker
as in weirdos
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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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of freethinkers These, um, freethinkers were unintentionally encouraged by what eventually became the airport's art program. — Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Oct. 2026 By the early 1990s, Eugene had earned itself a reputation as a beacon of progressive-minded irreverence, drawing a pungent mix of weirdos, iconoclasts, and freethinkers. — Literary Hub, 10 July 2026 My mom, like many freethinkers of her generation, butted heads against anything that reinforced the status quo, and let us children grow like wild weeds into our own individuals. — Morgan Lockhart, PEOPLE, 29 Nov. 2025 Doctors volunteered, but so did nurses, store owners, actors, academics, factory workers and freethinkers – even prisoners about to be executed. — Susan E. Lederer, The Conversation, 10 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for freethinkers
  1. weirdos
  2. kooks
  3. eccentrics
  4. crackpots
  5. oddballs
  6. individualists
  7. iconoclasts
  8. nuts
Noun
  • Look at these weirdos who rule the world now, Cupertino argues.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Okay what about people’s resistance to believing these guys are stone-cold weirdos?
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of weirdos
Noun
  • O’Hara worked consistently across her 50-year career in both film and television, best known for playing beloved kooks and amiable wackos, though her range was boundless.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2026
  • What so many of these talking heads have in common—legitimate experts, well-meaning journalists, and kooks alike—is how costly their recommendations are.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 3 Jan. 2026
Definition of kooks
Noun
  • Step inside, though, and you’re transported to a bucolic Britain of rolling hills and village greens, bumbling eccentrics and cute, clever farm animals.
    — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The professionalization worked, but at the expense of the site’s internal culture, Cooke argues, as generous eccentrics were displaced by neurotic lovers of rules.
    — Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of eccentrics
Noun
  • Get the angst out of the games, and the crackpots will move on to some other fashionable cause.
    — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 26 July 2026
  • Artists have always used music to question authority and expose the cracks (and the crackpots) in the American story.
    — Time, Time, 6 May 2026
Definition of crackpots
Noun
  • The general trivia and straight clues are also tough, and there’s a good amount of novelty, including 11 debut entries, a few oddballs among them, and one utterly brutal misdirect that significantly spiced up my solving experience.
    — Caitlin Lovinger, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Brecht once observed that Seghers thrived on the depiction of oddballs and loners.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of oddballs
Noun
  • The forty-niners are elemental to our identity as a nation of brave, rugged individualists.
    — Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • Based on actual events, Eden features a starry cast playing a disparate group of rugged individualists who all find themselves in the Galapagos in the early 20th century, each abandoning society in the hopes of creating a utopia.
    — Will Leitch, Vulture, 22 Aug. 2025
Definition of individualists
Noun
  • In the dot-com and digital revolutions that followed, many of the people who sold the hardware, coded the software, and built the platforms were seen as iconoclasts themselves.
    — Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 3 Sep. 2026
  • John Baldessari was one of the great iconoclasts of 20th century art.
    — Douglas Markowitz, Miami Herald, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of iconoclasts
Noun
  • Healthy ingredients like nuts and fresh fruit are often just a garnish or topping.
    — Anahad O’Connor, Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2026
  • My sweet potato casserole recipe swaps the nuts for crispy, sweet-and-salty cornflakes—the marshmallows can stay.
    — Zoe Denenberg, Bon Appetit Magazine, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of nuts

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Cite this Entry

“Freethinkers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freethinkers. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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