Liberal: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Liberal is also the name of two towns in the United States: Liberal, Kansas and Liberal, Missouri.

The word liberal, like liberty, derives from the Latin liber ("free"). In religion and politics, to be liberal is to be tolerant or open-minded, to favour freedom over control. In other words, a liberal is someone who adheres to the ideology of liberalism. For more information on the various variants of liberal, read Liberalism. Be aware that the meaning of the word liberal or liberalism can be different in various countries and can be related to the political background of the user. Therefore it can have various meanings throughout Wikipedia. A more comprehensive discussion can be found at Liberalism.

In the United States, liberal is sometimes used as an antonym for Conservative or a synonym for left-wing. There, it primarily refers to the New Deal variant of liberalism, emphasizing the positive role of the state. In other countries, liberal may have quite an opposite meaning: for instance, in France a liberal is a right-wing or Classical Liberal proponent of free markets. Some would use liberal in the classical liberal meaning of the word, others would prefer the social liberal meaning of the word.

Worldwide, there are many political parties that go by the name Liberal Party, but their ideological positions vary widely. For example, Australia's Liberal Party is generally characterized as following a conservative ideology, rather than a liberal one; the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is also considered a right-wing party. Canada's governing Liberal Party is, by contrast, a centre-left organization.