a shape having an irregular contour, chiefly used in nonrepresentational art and industrial design.
Linguistics. a linguistic form that can occur by itself, as fire, book, or run.
characterized by free form.
free-form sculpture.
not organized or planned in a conventional way.
a free-form international conglomerate.
encouraged to function or evolve without advance planning; spontaneous.
free-form management.
First recorded in 1945–50
First recorded in 1950–55
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Horvitz invites other friends, artists and curators to produce exhibits, events and readings and collaborate with him, taking a relaxed approach to programming: He intentionally keeps the garden’s programming relatively casual and free form.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2025
Slab pies and galettes are rustic and free form, but that doesn't mean they're ugly.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2021
“Los Olvidados” progressed like a soap opera, one scene cutting into the seemingly unrelated next one — highlights being jet-speed free form and mournful march sections with beautiful solos from Shepp and a wah-wah-muted ElSaffar.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2019
For one moment, there is only the molten dawn sun lighting the sky a poet red and the air racing cooly past him as he drops in free form flight.
From Slate ● Feb. 19, 2018
And so we find that Milan, although desirous to return to a free form of government, on the death of Filippo Visconti, had neither the force nor the skill needed to preserve it.
From Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius by Thomson, Ninian Hill
Its asymmetrical, free-form plate-glass top rests on a base made of two identical, U-shaped wooden legs —a configuration that blurs distinctions between primitivism and classicism, the organic and the engineered, furniture and art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
In partnership with architects like Benjamin Albertson and Rad Studio, the robotic gantry system can produce more free-form designs than traditional construction, with tight curves, circles and other elements.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
The free-form jazz in the film makes the atmosphere almost farcical, a choice that feels even more strange when Bong introduces the apartment complex’s janitor, who has a taste for dog meat.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025
They developed a survey of multiple-choice questions, free-form text fields and rating scales and sent it to leading graduate school programs in animal behavior research across disciplines.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
Her spiky, free-form locs are improvisational jazz; they abide by no rules.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
