What is the definition of independent clause?

An independent clause is a group of Words that can stand on their own as a sentence. Something like "Johnny ate the Apples." An independent clause has to have the same requirements as a sentence (Subject and verb), and has to be able to stand alone.

The reason it isn't the same thing as a sentence is that we discuss independent and dependent clauses as parts of simple, compound, and complex sentences. Therefore, the sentence could be "Johnny ate the Apples, which prevented mom from making her famous Apple pie." "Johnny ate the Apples" is still an independent clause, but it is part of a larger sentence (in this case it is joined to a dependent clause and the sentence is a complex sentence).

If the sentence were joined to another independent clause, the sentence would be compound (and yes, you can have compound-complex sentences, which require at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause).

AnswerPart of a sentence that makes sense by itself. Here is an example.

the italics is the independent clause.

The dog ran very far across the beach.