at large

Questions about at large

What does at large mean?

at large means "having escaped, especially from confinement". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for at large?

Close synonyms include escaped, loose, on the loose, in a broad way. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is at large a common word?

at large is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.