freelance

• free-lance, free lance

From free +‎ lance. Coined by Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Ivanhoe (1820) to describe a medieval mercenary warrior or "free-lance" (indicating that the lance is not sworn to any lord's services). It changed to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was recognized as a verb in 1903 by authorities such as the Oxford English Dictionary. In modern times the term has morphed into an adjective, a verb, and an adverb, as well as the derivative noun freelancer.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹiːlɑːns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹiˌlæns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːlɑːns
• Hyphenation: free‧lance

freelance (plural freelances)

1. Someone who sells their services to clients without a long-term employment contract.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     The objector, one Millworthy, a free-lance of journalism, was not to be so easily silenced.

   • 2014, Brian Mossop, Revising and Editing for Translators, page 192:

     The person you are revising (the revisee) is a colleague at your own rank, or another freelance.

2. (historical) A medieval mercenary.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:mercenary

freelance (comparative more freelance, superlative most freelance)

1. Of, or relating to a freelance; without employment contract.

   He was a freelance writer for several magazines.

   • 2007 October 30, Terry Cettina, “How to even the score on housework, kid duty”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Both work -- Jenny as a freelance writer from home, Marc full-time-plus as a civil engineer with a long commute. Jenny also takes care of their four sons, ages 20 months to 9 years, and homeschools the two oldest.

• freelancer

freelance (third-person singular simple present freelances, present participle freelancing, simple past and past participle freelanced)

1. (intransitive) To work as a freelance.
2. (transitive) To produce or sell services as a freelance.

Unadapted borrowing from English freelance.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfriːlɑns/, [ˈfriːlɑ̝ns̠]
• Rhymes: -iːlɑns

freelance

1. (as modifier) freelance

   freelancetoimittaja ― freelance journalist

2. (rare) synonym of freelancer (“freelancer”)

• “freelance”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

• free-lance

• IPA^(key): /fʁi.lɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

freelance (plural freelances)

1. freelance

freelance m or f by sense (plural freelances)

1. freelancer (someone who freelances)

• Rhymes: -ɐ̃si, -ilɐ̃ʃ
• Hyphenation: free‧lan‧ce

freelance (invariable)

1. freelance

freelance (invariable)

1. freelance

freelance m (plural freelances)

1. freelancer (someone who freelances)

• free lance | Definición | Diccionario de la lengua española | RAE - ASALE
• free lance | Diccionario panhispánico de dudas | RAE - ASALE
• freelance/freelancer | FundéuRAE