civil liberty
noun
plural civil liberties
: freedom from arbitrary interference in one's speech or actions by other individuals or by the government especially as constitutionally guaranteed (as by the U.S. Bill of Rights)
—usually plural
Examples of civil liberties include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, the right to privacy, and the right to due process of law.—
Ramon Martin
compare civil rights
Ramon Martin
civil libertarian
noun
plural civil libertarians
civil libertarian
adjective
… continued divisions within the GOP on civil libertarian issues.
—Ian Duncan and Lisa Mascaro
Ian Duncan and Lisa Mascaro
Examples of civil liberty in a Sentence
Freedom of speech is a civil liberty.
Recent Examples on the Web
Turbocharge terror If combined with the facial recognition and social media monitoring commonly deployed by the Department of Homeland Security, those reams of data would turbocharge ICE’s terror campaign in the short term and destroy American civil liberties in the long term.
—Tressie McMillan Cottom, Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2026
The public reports would outline potential risks to civil liberties and privacy rights, then detail what the technology is capable of, how the city would use it and what access third party entities would have to data collected by the technology.
—Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 5 Feb. 2026
The Republican Party was once noble, wary of centralized power and encroachments upon civil liberties.
—Torrey Snow, Baltimore Sun, 4 Feb. 2026
In a Senate Judiciary Committee on the oversight of the USA Patriot Act, Georgetown University constitutional law professor David Cole testified on the constitutional and civil liberty concerns that came with the act.
—Mikayla Bunnell, Hartford Courant, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for civil liberty
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2026
The public reports would outline potential risks to civil liberties and privacy rights, then detail what the technology is capable of, how the city would use it and what access third party entities would have to data collected by the technology.
—Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 5 Feb. 2026
The Republican Party was once noble, wary of centralized power and encroachments upon civil liberties.
—Torrey Snow, Baltimore Sun, 4 Feb. 2026
In a Senate Judiciary Committee on the oversight of the USA Patriot Act, Georgetown University constitutional law professor David Cole testified on the constitutional and civil liberty concerns that came with the act.
—Mikayla Bunnell, Hartford Courant, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for civil liberty
Cite this Entry
“Civil liberty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civil%20liberty. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
