自由
Meaning in Englishfreedom, liberty, free
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
自由 (jiyū) means freedom or liberty, describing the state of being able to act, think, or choose without external restriction; it refers to personal autonomy, political rights, and the general absence of imposed limits.
Main meanings
- 1. As an adverbial idea (often appearing with に) indicating 'freely' or 'without hindrance' in how an action is performed.
- 2. The absence of institutional or legal constraints, used in political and civil-rights contexts to describe liberties and protections.
- 3. Informal sense of being unbound by rules or schedules, used when something is optional or flexible.
- 4. Technical or metaphorical uses meaning 'degree of freedom' in fields like statistics, physics, or game design where constraints are measured.
How to use it
Used broadly across registers: casual speech to describe personal choices, formal political or legal language about rights, and compound words; grammatically it functions as a noun, as a na-adjective when modifying nouns, and adverbially with に to indicate doing something freely, appearing in everyday conversation, media, and academic texts.
Variants and close terms
- 自在 (jizai) — at will, freely
- 解放 (kaihō) — liberation, release
- フリー (furī) — free (loanword, informal)
- 制限 (seigen) — restriction (antonym)
- 束縛 (sokubaku) — constraint, bondage (antonym)
Composition
- 自: 'self' or 'oneself', a character often used for reflexive or personal senses.
- 由: 'reason', 'origin', or 'cause', implying source or allowance.
- Together they convey the idea of actions or status originating from the self — a semantic foundation for the modern sense of freedom or liberty.
Origin
The concept entered Japanese through Sino-Japanese vocabulary derived from Classical Chinese usage; its modern political and individual-liberty sense was strengthened during the Meiji period as Japan adopted Western ideas of civil rights and legal freedoms, appearing in political discourse, literature, and law.
Word class
noun; na-adjective (名詞・形容動詞)