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personal liberty

American

noun

the liberty of an individual to act with free will except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.

Etymology

Origin of personal liberty

First recorded in 1840–50

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.

See Examples For:

personal liberty

Essential to both personal liberty and constitutional governance is the rule of law.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

The Fourth Amendment is an essential safeguard of Americans’ privacy and personal liberty.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026

"This was a great step for personal liberty."

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2023

“We have to figure out how to provide for both. We can’t destroy personal liberty in the name of mental healthcare, or the other way around. We can’t have one without the other.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2023

He spent a lot of time with the Haudenosaunee, whose insistence on personal liberty fascinated him.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023