context-free
|con-text-free|
🇺🇸
/ˌkɑn.tɛkstˈfriː/
🇬🇧
/ˌkɒn.tɛkstˈfriː/
not depending on context
Etymology
'context-free' originates from English, specifically the compound of the noun 'context' and the adjective 'free', where 'context' came via Latin 'contextus' and 'free' came from Old English 'frēo'.
'context' derives from Latin 'contextus' (from 'con-' + 'texere' meaning 'to weave') and entered Middle English as 'context'; 'free' comes from Old English 'frēo' (meaning 'not bound'). The compound 'context-free' was formed in modern English and was adopted in technical usage (notably in formal language theory) in the mid-20th century.
Initially, elements meant 'a woven together (context)' and 'not bound (free)'; combined, 'context-free' originally meant simply 'not dependent on context' and later acquired the specialized technical sense in computing and linguistics of grammars or languages whose rules are context-independent.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
not dependent on surrounding context; independent of circumstances or situation.
The policy is context-free: it applies the same rule in every case.
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Adjective 2
in formal language theory, describing a grammar or language whose production rules do not depend on neighboring symbols (as in a context-free grammar).
A context-free grammar can generate many programming-language constructs like balanced parentheses.
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Last updated: 2025/11/25 20:10