Meaning of independent in English

independent

adjective

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/ˌɪn.dɪˈpen.dənt/ us

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/ˌɪn.dɪˈpen.dənt/

independent adjective (NOT INFLUENCED)

not influenced or controlled in any way by other people, events, or things:

an independent enquiry/organization

They all made the same comment, quite independent of each other (= without deciding together to do so).

An independent politician does not agree or vote with any particular political party.

More examples

An independent adviser has been brought in to conciliate between the two sides involved in the conflict.
It's hard to obtain truly independent financial advice.
Hundreds of small independent shops will be forced to close by the opening of this superstore.
We make use of available research facilities and license technology from independent sources.
The industry has not commented on the results of an independent study into the safety of mobile phones.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Freedom to act

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Politics - general words

independent adjective (NOT RULED)

An independent country is not governed or ruled by another country:

Belize became fully independent from Britain in 1981.

Tibet, once an independent country, is now ruled by China.

Synonyms

autonomous
self-governing
sovereign  (GOVERNMENT)

More examples

The province is nominally independent.
A bloody civil war followed the proclamation of an independent state.
The international community has refused to recognize the newly independent nation state.
The creation of independent states has led to a resurgence of nationalism.
After India became independent, she chose to be a member of the Commonwealth.

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Colonization & self-government

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independent adjective (NOT HELPED)

not taking help or money from other people:

Grandma's very independent and does all her own shopping and cooking.

I've always been financially independent.

More examples

She's fiercely independent.
She attaches great value to being financially independent.
She wanted to be independent and beholden to no one.
She's very mature and independent for her age.
I wish you'd be a bit more independent.

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Unaided and working alone

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independent adjective (GRAMMAR)

language specialized

An independent grammatical clause forms part of a sentence but can also form a separate sentence.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Linguistics: grammatical terms

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Related word

independently adverb

independent

noun [ C ]

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/ˌɪn.dɪˈpen.dənt/ us

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/ˌɪn.dɪˈpen.dənt/

independent noun [C] (POLITICS)

a politician who does not represent a political party:

He left the Conservatives and stood as an independent.

a voter who does not belong to a political party:

She is gaining support among independents who have no political preference or who lean Democratic.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Politics - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Voters & candidates in elections

independent noun [C] (BUSINESS)

a shop, small business, etc. that is not part of a large company:

The band would rather sign to an independent than a major record label.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Freedom to act

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Shops & auctions

Enterprises

(Definition of independent from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

independent | American Dictionary

independent

adjective

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/ˌɪn·dɪˈpen·dənt/

not influenced or controlled by other people but free to make your own decisions:

an independent thinker

Congress called for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the president.

Now that Jean’s got a job, she’s financially independent (= she does not need money from other people).

social studies

If a country becomes independent, it is no longer governed or ruled by another country.

independent contractor

An independent contractor is a person who agrees to do a particular job for someone else for an agreed amount of money but who is not an employee:

She used to be on staff, but now she’s an independent contractor.

independently

adverb us

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/ˌɪn·dɪˈpen·dənt·li/

The telephone was actually invented independently by two different people at almost the same time.

independent

noun [ C ]

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/ˌɪn·dɪˈpen·dənt/

politics & government

a voter or politician who does not belong to a political party:

She is gaining support among independents who have no political preference or who lean Democratic.

(Definition of independent from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

independent | Business English

independent

adjective

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/ˌɪndɪˈpendənt/ us

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not influenced or controlled by the government or another organization:

independent of sth/sb The commission must remain independent of political control.

completely/fully/totally independent The charity is completely independent of government.

The agency is an independent body which monitors standards in the industry.

an independent adviser/auditor/expert

independent report/study/research

POLITICS

not governed or ruled by another country:

an independent nation/state/country

independent from sth/sb Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821.

COMMERCE

not part of a larger group of companies:

The association represents independent retailers.

an independent business/firm/store

The band signed with an independent label.

a leading independent producer of television programmes

privately financed and not receiving money from the government:

pupils from state and independent schools

not taking help or money from other people:

financially/economically independent

not involved in a situation so able to judge it fairly:

It's important to seek independent advice.

independent

noun [ C ]

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/ˌɪndɪˈpendənt/ us

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COMMERCE

a business that does not belong to a larger company or group:

The industry ranges from large retailers to small independents.

(Definition of independent from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of independent

independent

Participants within each focus group represented a range of pharmacy types (multiples, independents and small chains).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The independents, he argues, should not be viewed as forerunners of modernity and rational bureaucracy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

More examples Fewer examples

The new electoral system should thus produce more party-centered campaigns at least in the sense that it makes it disadvantages independents.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Most conservative independents were younger politicians trying to win their ®rst election.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, it gives of®cial party nominees an advantage over independents.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

None of the subsequent independents from the right got as many votes as he did or managed to get more female than male votes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The importance of local factors in the elections is most evident, however, in the large number of independents (98) who stood in the parliamentary elections.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There were several clashes between the supporters of official party candidates and those of the independents.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One plausible alternative is to neutralize the issue through the selection of independents (non-partisans) to head the two departments.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The reference category is thus weak partisans and independents who 'lean' towards either party.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is the practical problem that we tend not to know the ideal policy positions of all independents in the system.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One obvious and feasible solution is to treat independents as unreliable, not to be counted as a part of any stable majority.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Strong partisans for example, having a more coherent approach to viewing their political world, could be expected to have a greater sense of efficacy than independents and weak partisans.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We use 'pure' independents as a dummy variable (rather than as our reference category) as they are distinguished from weak partisans and independents who lean by lower levels of participation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We added the votes of the independents to each party because most of the independents that were elected subsequently joined the party with which they had subpact.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of independent

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.