# freelance

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈfɹiːlɑːns/ · frequency rank #11,548

## Definitions
1. Someone who sells their services to clients without a long-term employment contract.
2. A medieval mercenary.

## Etymology
From free + lance. Coined by Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Ivanhoe (1819; see quotation) to describe a medieval mercenary warrior or "free-lance" (indicating that the lance is not sworn to any lord's services). It changed to a figurative noun around the 1860s and was recognized as a verb in 1903 by authorities such as the Oxford English Dictionary. In modern times the term has morphed into an adjective, a verb, and an adverb, as well as the derivative noun freelancer.

## Easily confused with
- **freelancer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/freelance-vs-freelancer)

## Common misspellings (14)
`ferelance`, `ffreelance`, `freealnce`, `freelacne`, `freelancce`, `freelanec`, `freelannce`, `freelence`, `freellance`, `freelnace`, `frelance`, `freleance`, `frreelance`, `rfeelance`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/freelance