freelancer

noun

free·​lanc·​er ˈfrē-ˌlan(t)-sər 

plural freelancers

1

: a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer : freelance sense 1

hired a freelancer to write the article

… there were hundreds of photographers on the scene, some on assignment, some freelancers, most of them amateurs.

—Garrison Keillor

But while Renzo is the ultimate company man, a lifetime employee who reports to the same office every morning, Riccardo is the prototypical freelancer, a peripatetic problem-solver with five-dozen clients.

—Bruce Schoenfeld

2

: a person who acts independently without being affiliated with or authorized by an organization : freelance sense 2b

[Anthony] Grafton contrasts public intellectuals outside and inside the universities, and he takes note of today's nostalgia for the freethinkers who lived and wrote independently of deans and classrooms. But it is good to be reminded that in that golden era of freelancers such as Wilson, H. L. Mencken, and Mary McCarthy, voices like theirs were also raised in universities.

—G. W. Bowersock

Examples of freelancer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Being Wealthy In Greece—Getting A Digital Nomad Visa Many EU countries offer visas for digital nomads working for foreign companies or freelancers; Greece is no exception. —Alex Ledsom, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025

These were invaluable assets that most other MUAs lacked as freelancers. —Grace Butler, USA TODAY, 14 Feb. 2025

Martin was on a text thread that linked Angelenos—many of them, like her, creative freelancers—who were buffeting the work of organizations such as the Hollywood Food Coalition and the N.A.A.C.P., distributing food to relief centers and individual families. —Hannah Goldfield, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025

The Black in Fashion Council is a collective of media types, models, stylists, freelancers and other industry contributors that strive to create a new foundation for inclusivity within the fashion industry. —Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 10 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for freelancer

• enhancer
• merganser
• romancer
• anser
• answer
• cancer
• dancer
• lancer
• anticancer
• necromancer