Illiberal

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One opposed to liberal principles.

    "Yes, illiberals argue that Poorman's privation bestows upon him the inalienable right to receive assets (coercively expropriated from Richman). These same illiberals usually claim to believe that all tranquil citizens have equal rights."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Restricting or failing to sufficiently promote individual choice and freedom.

    "Behind Europe's commitment to liberal democracy lurks an illiberal tradition. Every time freedom has failed in Europe, it is to that tradition - of violent repression, totalitarianism, xenophobia, and intolerance - that Europeans have reverted."

  2. 2
    Narrow-minded; bigoted.

    "Accordingly, that form of Popery, which prevailed in Scotland, was of the moſt bigotted and illiberal kind."

  3. 3
    Ungenerous, stingy. archaic

    "...the final offer made on the part of the King was that the Queen should have an allowance of 52,000 pounds a year— not, one would have thought, a very illiberal allowance for the daughter of a small German prince..."

  4. 4
    Not adhering to either liberalism or neoliberalism.

    "In the general atmosphere of lawlessness and arbitrariness the final outcome may be less harsh and unpleasant than might at first have been expected — though it can be a lot worse if you are an Albanian "irredentist", for example, or a Croatian "separatist", or if you happen to be undergoing trial and sentence in an illiberal republic like Bosnia or Hercegovina."

Adjective
  1. 1
    narrow-minded about cherished opinions wordnet

Example

More examples

"Behind Europe's commitment to liberal democracy lurks an illiberal tradition. Every time freedom has failed in Europe, it is to that tradition - of violent repression, totalitarianism, xenophobia, and intolerance - that Europeans have reverted."

Etymology

From Middle French illibéral, from Latin illiberalis, equivalent to il- + liberal.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.