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In the United Kingdom, the word liberalism can have any of several meanings. Scholars primarily use the term to refer to classical liberalism. The term can also mean economic liberalism, social liberalism or political liberalism. It can simply refer to the ideology and practises of the historic Liberal Party (1859–1988), or in the modern context, of the Liberal Democrats, a UK party formed after the original Liberal Party's demise.
Liberalism can occasionally have the imported American meaning; however, the pejorative connotation is much weaker in the UK than in the US, and social liberals from both the left and right wing continue to use liberal and illiberal to describe themselves and their opponents, respectively.