freelance

Or free-lance

[free-lans, -lans]

adjective

1. of or relating to work conducted by a person who sells their services by the hour, day, job, etc., rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer.

   a freelance writer;

   freelance copyediting.

verb (used without object)

freelanced, freelancing 

1. to sell services by the hour, day, job, etc., rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer.

   The illustrator used to be employed by us but is freelancing now.

verb (used with object)

freelanced, freelancing 

1. to produce, sell, or accomplish (something) while selling services by the hour, day, job, etc..

   Every so often I freelance a magazine article for some extra cash.

adverb

1. in the manner of one who sells services by the hour, day, job, etc., rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer.

   She works freelance.

noun

1. freelancer.

2. a person who contends in a cause or in a succession of various causes, as they choose, without personal attachment or allegiance.

freelance

/ ˈfriːˌlɑːns /

noun

1. 1. Also called: freelancer. a self-employed person, esp a writer or artist, who is not employed continuously but hired to do specific assignments

   2. ( as modifier )

      a freelance journalist

2. a person, esp a politician, who supports several causes or parties without total commitment to any one

3. (in medieval Europe) a mercenary soldier or adventurer

verb

1. to work as a freelance on (an assignment, etc)

adverb

1. as a freelance

Word History and Origins

Origin of freelance¹

First recorded in 1810–20; free + lance ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of freelance¹

C19 (in sense 3): later applied to politicians, writers, etc

Example Sentences

Afterward, with the help of remaining friends, he slunk off to the U.S. in 1876, where he taught in Massachusetts for a while, then took up as a freelance newspaper writer in Chicago.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Ms. Dingfelder is a freelance science journalist and author of “Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Like John le Carré, he creates his own jargon: safe houses are “coops,” spycraft is “artifice,” freelance agents are “units” and deep-cover moles are “termites.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

I supported myself as a freelance designer before I got married, but after marriage, Francis’s career took off quickly and made my earnings dispensable.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Frustrated, she reached out in April 2021 to an agent in Canada who rejected the book but suggested she work with Helen Reeves, a Toronto-based freelance editor, to refocus the manuscript.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• self-employed