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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Recent Examples of freethinkers
These, um, freethinkers were unintentionally encouraged by the airport’s art.
—
Charlie Sosnick,
Condé Nast Traveler,
19 Dec. 2025
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
Charlie Sosnick,
Condé Nast Traveler,
19 Dec. 2025
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
Noun
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Himes’ novels, like Riley’s films, also run on a bench of eccentric weirdos.
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In a community overflowing with crusty weirdos, Kate O’Flynn’s Patricia emerges as the undeniable standout.
Noun
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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.
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What so many of these talking heads have in common—legitimate experts, well-meaning journalists, and kooks alike—is how costly their recommendations are.
Noun
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Dippold has populated the show with lovable eccentrics played by great character actors—Dale Dickey, Jeff Hiller, Tim Baltz.
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Inbred eccentrics and bumbling detectives have populated the seaside villages of Bruno Dumont’s absurdist comedies.
Noun
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Artists have always used music to question authority and expose the cracks (and the crackpots) in the American story.
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The crackpots are the mainstream.
Noun
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Black Rock Coalition bands like funk-metal group 24-7 Spyz and shoegaze oddballs the Veldt—particularly when the Veldt’s murkiness resolves into a major-key chorus.
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His trilogy is, likewise, a straphangers’ gallery of metropolitan oddballs, from Zippo, a pyromaniac turned blaxploitation filmmaker, to Uncle Rich, a master criminal who stages a daring raid on the Waldorf-Astoria from a disused train tunnel with the help of a homeless army.
Noun
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The forty-niners are elemental to our identity as a nation of brave, rugged individualists.
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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.
Noun
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Tempo’s ascendence and corporate partnerships are indicative of a larger trend where well-heeled, corporate firms—from Robinhood to Stripe—are making their way into blockchain, traditionally the territory of anti-establishmentarians and iconoclasts.
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The women in her stories feel profound, distinct uncertainty toward convention—less as iconoclasts than fierce individuals.
Noun
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Granola One of the original ‘health foods,’ granola contains many nutritious ingredients, such as oats, nuts, and seeds.
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California's Central Valley, stretching some 20,000 square miles (51,800 square kilometers), is an agricultural powerhouse that's estimated to produce 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts and other table foods, including most of its nectarines.
Cite this Entry
“Freethinkers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freethinkers. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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