Ĭn′de-pĕnd′ençe, n.

n. [Fr. indépendance, Sp. independencia, It. indipendenza.] The state or quality of being independent; absence of dependence; exemption from reliance on others, or control from them; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, as long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence. Pope.

Declaration of Independence (Amer. Hist.), the solemn declaration of the Congress of the United States of America, on the 4th of July, 1776, by which they formally renounced their subjection to the government of Great Britain.