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.
“They look like paintings to me. I’ve been drawing them since I was a kid. They’re free form and always flowing, moving. It’s that dream state.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2023
Many were drawn to slam poetry’s free form, which rewards wordplay and can be less intimidating for those with no formal education.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2018
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
So Twitter appears stuck between implementing some safeguards that could change the free form nature of its service and continuing to passively enable the harassment of its users.
From The Verge ● Jul. 22, 2016
This free form of government, this popular assembly--the common council for the common good--where have we contemplated its earliest models?
From Mosaics of Grecian History by Willson, Marcius
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
“The jewelry is much more free-form and fun versus the more serious stuff that feels heavy to me,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 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
Names splattered in from leftfield, a free-form approach to positions, a delicious cheese-dream of a bench – a side picked like Jackson Pollock paints.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2025
The woman who'd let us in was mixing drinks behind a handsome free-form bar which was large enough to have graced a night club.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
