How do you use the word "libertarian" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "libertarian": I am a libertarian. I am not a libertarian.

Libertarian Meaning

/ˌlɪbəˈtɛə̯ɹi.ən/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounOne who advocates liberty, either generally or in relation to a specific issue.

nounA believer in the freedom of thinking beings to choose their own destiny (the doctrine of free will) as opposed to those who believe the future is predetermined (the doctrine of necessity).

Sentence Examples

I am a libertarian.

I am not a libertarian.

You're not a libertarian if you support prisons and borders.

CEFR Practice Quiz

A ____ believes in maximum personal freedom and minimal government intervention.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

As a ____, he believes that the role of the government should be limited to protecting individual rights.

Word Origin & History

The noun is derived from liber(ty) + -arian (suffix denoting an advocate of or believer in something). The adjective is derived from the noun. sense development The word was first attested in English in 1789 in William Belsham’s Essays: see the quotation. This was contrasted with necessitarian, in the context of free will, and was not used in the more frequently encountered modern sense. Compare French libertaire (“person with extreme left-wing beliefs, anarchist”), from liberté (“freedom”) + -aire (suffix forming nouns). Libertaire is derived from Latin libertas. The French word was first attested in a May 1857 letter by the French anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque (1821–1865) to the anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), reading: “Anarchiste juste-milieu, libéral et non LIBERTAIRE [A centrist anarchist, liberal and not LIBERTARIAN] […]”. It was popularized as a euphemism for anarchiste in the 1890s, following the French lois scélérates (literally “villainous laws”) under which anarchist publications were banned. Sense 3.2 (“believer in right-libertarianism”) developed in the United States in the 1940s and was popularized in the 1950s. In the 1940s, Leonard Read (1898–1983), the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, a free-market think tank, began calling himself “libertarian” in contrast with a “classical liberal”. In 1955, Dean Russell also promoted the use of the word, writing: “Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word ‘libertarian’.”

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"[W]here is the difference betvveen the Libertarian, vvho ſays that the mind chuſes the motive; and the Neceſſarian, vvho aſſerts that the motive determines the mind; if the volition be the neceſſary reſult of all the previous circumſtances?" — 1789, [William Belsham], “Essay I. On Liberty and Necessity.”, in Essays, Philosophical, Historical, and Literary, London: […] C[harles] Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 11:

"[Gustav] Landauer's reorientation of anarchist theory and practice in the direction of idealist and völkisch thought was often incomprehensible to the more traditional libertarians, and in the period of the second Sozialist Landauer no longer felt entirely comfortable with the simple "anarchist" label. For Landauer anarchism and socialism had always been different expressions of the same view; now he regarded anarchism as "merely the negative side of what is positively called socialism."" — 1973, Eugene Lunn, “The Romantic as Socialist”, in Prophet of Community: The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 200:

"While anarchism and socialist libertarians have a rich history of revolutionary thinkers ranging from Emma Goldman to George Orwell, the best-known socialist libertarian thinker of today is probably Noam Chomsky." — 2012, Jennifer D. Carlson, “Libertarianism”, in Wilbur R. Miller, editor, The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 1008, column 1:

"Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that "nudges" our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control." — 2012 January, Steven Sloman, “The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation [review of Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) by Daniel Kahneman]”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2017, page 74:

"For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchist but in recent years, its meaning has become more ambivalent. Some anarchists like David Guérin will call themselves ‘libertarian socialists’, partly to avoid the negative overtones still associated with anarchism, and partly to stress the place of anarchism with the socialist tradition. Even Marxists of the New Left like E[dward] P[almer] Thompson call themselves ‘libertarian’ to distinguish themselves from those authoritarian socialists and communists who believe in revolutionary dictatorship and vanguard parties." — 1991, Peter H[ugh] Marshall, “The Relevance of Anarchism”, in Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, London: Harper Perennial, published 2008, →ISBN, part 7 (The Legacy of Anarchism), page 641:

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