Jump To:

• independent
  independent

  adjective

  not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself.
• Independent
  Independent

  noun

  (in England) a member of the Congregational Church

independent

American  

[in-di-pen-duhnt] / ˌɪn dɪˈpɛn dənt /

adjective

1. not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself.

   an independent thinker.

2. not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction; autonomous; free.

   an independent businessman.

3. not influenced by the thought or action of others.

   independent research.

4. not dependent; not depending or contingent upon something else for existence, operation, etc.

5. not relying on another or others for aid or support.

6. rejecting others' aid or support; refusing to be under obligation to others.

7. possessing a competency.

   to be financially independent.

8. sufficient to support a person without their having to work.

   an independent income.

9. executed or originating outside a given unit, agency, business, etc.; external.

   an independent inquiry.

10. working for oneself or for a small, privately owned business.

11. expressive of a spirit of independence; self-confident; unconstrained.

    a free and independent citizen.

12. free from party commitments in voting.

    the independent voter.

13. Mathematics. (of a quantity or function) not depending upon another for its value.

14. Grammar. capable of standing syntactically as a complete sentence.

    an independent clause.

15. Logic.

    1. (of a set of propositions) having no one proposition deducible from the others.

    2. (of a proposition) belonging to such a set.

16. Statistics. statistically independent.

17. (initial capital letter) adhering or relating to Independency.

---

noun

• independents
  plural

1. an independent person or thing.

2. a small, privately owned business.

   The conglomerates are buying up the independents.

3. Politics. a person who votes for candidates, measures, etc., in accordance with their own judgment and without regard to the endorsement of, or the positions taken by, any party.

4. (initial capital letter) an adherent of Independency.

5. British. a Congregationalist.

idioms

1. independent of, irrespective of; regardless of.

   Independent of monetary considerations, it was a promising position.

independent ¹ British  

/ ˌɪndɪˈpɛndənt /

adjective

1. free from control in action, judgment, etc; autonomous

2. not dependent on anything else for function, validity, etc; separate

   two independent units make up this sofa

3. not reliant on the support, esp financial support, of others

4. capable of acting for oneself or on one's own

   a very independent little girl

5. providing a large unearned sum towards one's support (esp in the phrases independent income, independent means )

6. living on an unearned income

7. maths (of a system of equations) not linearly dependent See also independent variable

8. statistics

   1. (of two or more variables) distributed so that the value taken by one variable will have no effect on that taken by another or others

   2. (of two or more events) such that the probability of all occurring equals the product of their individual probabilities Compare statistical dependence

9. logic

   1. not validly derivable from one another, so that if the propositions are the axioms of some theory none can be dispensed with

   2. not logically related, so that in no case can the truth value of one be inferred from those of the others

---

noun

1. an independent person or thing

2. a person who is not affiliated to or who acts independently of a political party

Independent ² British  

/ ˌɪndɪˈpɛndənt /

noun

1. (in England) a member of the Congregational Church

---

adjective

1. of or relating to Independency

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonindependent
  adjective
• preindependent
  adjective
• pseudoindependent
  adjective
• quasi-independent
  adjective
• superindependent
  adjective
• independently
  adverb
• nonindependently
  adverb
• preindependently
  adverb
• pseudoindependently
  adverb
• quasi-independently
  adverb
• superindependently
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• independents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of independent

First recorded in 1605–15; in- ³ + dependent

Explanation

If your brother says you broke his guitar and you say you weren't anywhere near it, your parents may ask your sister for an independent opinion, as she has no reason to lie. An independent person is free from the control or influence of other people. The root word, depend, originally meant "to hang down." We use the word hang in a similar way. If the decision to build a new stadium hangs on funding, the decision won't be made till the money comes in. To be independent means that you don't depend on your parents to pay your bills. Or, for a three year old, it may mean going to the bathroom "all by yourself." It's all relative.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

independent Independent independents

Their application argues that the decision by the Parades Commission -- the independent body regulating contentious marches -- misrepresented police evidence about the risk of disorder.

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

Sara Holoubek is the founding partner of Luminary Labs, a strategy and innovation consultancy, an independent board director and angel investor.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Most independent truckers who operate job-to-job on the spot market pay for their own costs, like fuel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Last week an independent legal panel delivered a long-anticipated verdict, finding the club guilty on 114 counts of systematic financial fraud, amounting to more than a billion dollars in fake revenues and sham commercial sponsorships.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

Although there is plenty of music that has no counterpoint, independent parts are one of the most basic ways to make music sound rich and interesting.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

Connie Alexander, the head of the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, condemned the incident in an opinion essay for the Independent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

RBC also detects that during major drawdowns, confidence and sentiment gauges move sharply with readings like the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Association of Individual Investors dropping sharply.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

The American Independent and One Nation did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

The Independent leads with an image of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, with his wife, arriving at a Labour conference at Liverpool on Saturday.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026

An Independent Electoral Commission with extensive powers would be responsible for the administration of the election.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

More than three-quarters of Americans — including 79% of Democrats, 76% of Republicans and 75% of independents — said they were “concerned that misleading audio or video ‘deepfakes’ created using AI will impact” the midterms.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

That’s not to say that independents aren’t well supported; most of them align in some way with a larger custodian for those sorts of things.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

It hasn't all been plain sailing - already two councillors, Steve Lewis and Rhys Carr, have left Reform to sit as independents, and a third, Nick Farmer, has been suspended by the party.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

And they enjoy considerably more support among white and upper-income Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than among blacks, Hispanics and lower-income voters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

“Every hotel concierge knows who to call if some guest wants tickets. All I’m sayin’ is, it’s not as easy as you think for a couple of independents.

From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar

Related Words

• autonomous
• nonpartisan
• self-reliant
• self-sufficient
• separate
• sovereign