From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
independence
n 1: freedom from control or influence of another or others [syn:
independency]
2: the successful ending of the American Revolution; "they
maintained close relations with England even after
independence"
3: a city in western Missouri; the beginning of the Santa Fe
Trail [syn: Independence]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Independence \In`de*pend"ence\, n. [Cf. F. ind['e]pendance.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The state or quality of being independent; freedom from
dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by,
others; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of
one's own affairs without interference.
[1913 Webster]
Let fortune do her worst, . . . as long as she never
makes us lose our honesty and our independence.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
2. Sufficient means for a comfortable livelihood.
[1913 Webster]
Declaration of Independence (Amer. Hist.), the declaration
of the Congress of the Thirteen United States of America,
on the 4th of July, 1776, by which they formally declared
that these colonies were free and independent States, not
subject to the government of Great Britain.
[1913 Webster]