means The act of being set free, or the state of being released from confinement, oppression, or restriction.

from From Latin liberare, 'to set free,' built on liber, 'free' — the same root that gives us 'liberty' and 'liberal.' That liber sits in the same family as 'liberty' and possibly relates to the Latin liberi, meaning 'children,' as in the free-born members of a household, distinct from slaves. English took 'liberation' through Latin's liberationem, and over centuries it broadened from freeing individuals to freeing whole peoples — most vividly in the wartime sense of armies 'liberating' captured cities.