"Four Freedoms" by Franklin Roosevelt (1941): List 1

In January of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined the basic freedoms that, in his view, America represented. Almost a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR warned of the dangers from dictatorships and of the need for America to prepare to defend itself.

This list covers vocabulary in paragraphs 1-10 of the speech.
13 words 346 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. unprecedented
    novel; having no earlier occurrence
    I address you, the members of this new Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the union.
  2. unity
    the quality of being fused into one
    And, fortunately, only one of these the four-year war between the States ever threatened our national unity.
  3. compass
    navigational instrument for finding directions
    Today, thank God, 130,000,000 Americans in 48 States have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.
    Roosevelt is speaking metaphorically about the divisions between Americans in the North and South during the Civil War.
  4. principle
    a basic truth or law or assumption
    We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce.
  5. commerce
    transactions supplying goods and services
    We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce.
  6. convey
    make known; pass on, of information
    What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition clear, definite opposition to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past.
  7. procession
    the action of a group moving ahead in regular formation
    What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition clear, definite opposition to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past.
  8. isolation
    a country's withdrawal from international politics
    Today, thinking of our children and of their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas.
  9. vindicate
    maintain, uphold, or defend
    While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.
  10. domination
    power to defeat
    While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.
  11. interlude
    an intervening period or episode
    Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish itself in this hemisphere.
  12. hemisphere
    half of the terrestrial globe
    Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish itself in this hemisphere.
    "This hemisphere" means North and South America, as opposed to Europe, Asia, and Africa.
  13. visualize
    imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind
    But, as time went on, as we remember, the American people began to visualize what the downfall of democratic nations might mean to our own democracy.
Created on Wed Jun 04 11:58:13 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Jun 04 12:03:00 EDT 2025)

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