free-living
Americanadjective
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following a way of life in which one freely indulges the appetites, desires, etc.
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Biology. noting an organism that is neither parasitic, symbiotic, nor sessile.
adjective
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given to ready indulgence of the appetites
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(of animals and plants) not parasitic; existing independently
Other Word Forms
- free-liver noun
Etymology
Origin of free-living
First recorded in 1810–20
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Scientists have identified around 400 species of free-living amoebae, but only six are known to cause disease in humans - including Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba, both of which can infect the brain.
From BBC • Sep. 17, 2025
It’s also a parasite — because who needs to be free-living when you’re this fabulous?
From Salon • May 27, 2025
"It opens the door to experimentally manipulate the demographic or genetic composition of free-living populations to ask questions about how realistic natural social environments affect health, fitness and life outcomes for individuals," Sheehan said.
From Science Daily • Feb. 14, 2024
And most recently, some of those species again traded their ability to make silk for a free-living, clinging life in these faster waters.
From Science Magazine • Jan. 12, 2024
The first living things may have been something like free-living viroids only a few hundred nucleotides long.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
