FREETHINKERS Synonyms: 38 Similar and Opposite Words

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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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

Noun

The singer-songwriter’s seventh album is their wackiest and funniest to date, with a madcap gleam coursing through its synth-pop portraits of lovable weirdos and suburban dread.

— Zach Schonfeld, Pitchfork, 26 Oct. 2026
This is DeFalco’s debut feature after making several skits about weirdos with warped goals.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 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

Fittingly, Gentling the Horse’s overriding theme is a fascination with the oddballs who scrape by on the fringes of capitalist society.

— Zach Schonfeld, Pitchfork, 26 Oct. 2026
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

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

In a food processor, grind the nuts as finely as possible along with 1/4 cup/32 g of the flour.

— ABC News, ABC News, 29 Oct. 2026
Pulverized into a fine powder and bloomed in butter with the aromatics, the corn nuts bring an earthy sweetness and seriously amp up the corn flavor.

— Rick Martinez, Bon Appetit Magazine, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of nuts

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“Freethinkers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freethinkers. Accessed 3 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of freethinkers

noun

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