free association

1. 1.

   a thought process in which ideas (words or images) suggest other ideas in a sequence

   Broaderthinking

Questions about free association

What does free association mean?

free association means "a thought process in which ideas (words or images) suggest other ideas in a sequence".

Is free association a common word?

free association is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.