How to Use free-living in a Sentence

free-living

adjective
  • While further data will be needed to firm up any link, the researchers highlight that physicians shouldn’t overlook potential signs of free-living amoebas.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 1 May 2026
  • All eukaryotic cells, including our own, trace their evolutionary origins to a free-living ancestor.
    — Claire L. Evans, Quanta Magazine, 30 July 2025
  • The team found that 64% of modern breed dogs carry some trace of wolf ancestry; meanwhile, every free-living village dog contains wolf DNA.
    — Jay Kakade december 09, New Atlas, 9 Dec. 2025
  • So, Carl Safina listened, watched, and took meticulous notes as this little being gradually became a free-living owl spending most of its time a few feet from the author’s back door.
    — Barbara Ellis, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025
  • Together, these features support the endosymbiotic theory of their origin—these organelles originated as free-living organisms that were incorporated into eukaryotic cells over evolutionary time.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 June 2026
  • For example, since January, disease experts scattered throughout the agency have answered more than 1,500 calls from providers caring for patients with malaria, parasitic diseases, free-living amoebas, diphtheria, and botulism, according to numbers from the CDC.
    — Keren Landman, The Atlantic, 17 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'free-living.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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