Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 23, 2024 is: unfettered \un-FET-erd\ adjective

Unfettered describes what is not controlled or restricted. It is a synonym of both [free](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free) and [unrestrained](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unrestrained).

// The biographer has been given unfettered access to the family's collection of personal correspondence.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unfettered)

Examples:

"Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, said that, before the [CRTC](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Canadian-Radio-Television-and-Telecommunications-Commission), foreign streamers for a decade were allowed unfettered access to the Canadian market, which increasingly put local TV networks at a disadvantage." — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Dec. 2023

Did you know?

A [fetter](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fetter) is a chain or shackle for the feet (such as the kind sometimes used on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. Fetter and [unfetter](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unfetter) both function as verbs in English with contrasting literal meanings having to do with the putting on of and freeing from fetters; they likewise have contrasting figurative extensions having to do with the depriving and granting of freedom. The adjective unfettered resides mostly in the figurative, with the word typically describing someone or something unrestrained in progress or spirit. This is how Irish author [James Joyce](https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Joyce) used the word in his 1916 autobiographical novel [A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man](https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Portrait-of-the-Artist-as-a-Young-Man) when the character of Cranly recalls to his best friend Stephen what he (Stephen) said he wishes to do in life: "To discover the mode of life or of art whereby your spirit could express itself in unfettered freedom."