Definitions of independent:

• noun:   a writer or artist who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them
• noun:   a neutral or uncommitted person (especially in politics)
• adjective:   not dependent on or conditioned by or relative to anything else
• adjective:   not contingent
• adjective:   free from external control and constraint

  Example: "An independent mind"

• adjective:   of a clause; able to stand alone syntactically as a complete sentence

  Example: "The main (or independent) clause in a complex sentence has at least a subject and a verb"

• adjective:   not controlled by a party or interest group
• adjective:   of political bodies