自由
Meaning in Englishfreedom, liberty, free
Animated kanji stroke order
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)