Word.ws English Dictionary

freedom of speech

Syllables: free·dom of speech/ˈfɹiː.dəm əv ˌspiːt͡ʃ/

freedom of speech noun: the right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.

freedom of speech: the right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution
Image: Simon Gibbs from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

freedom of speech (uncountable)

  1. The right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.
    • S. Iohn the Baptiste, who died for the lyke liberty and fredome of speache, as S. Quillian, and S. Lamberte did.1567, Thomas Stapleton, A Counterblast to M. Hornes Vayne Blaste against M. Fekenham: Wherein is Set Forthe: A Ful Reply to M. Hornes Answer, and to Euery Part therof Made, against the Declaration of...
    • That the Freedome of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parlyament.1689 December 16, Bill of Rights (1688 chapter 2, 1 William and Mary, Session 2), Legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
    Synonyms:
    free speech
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see freedom, speech.
    • […] For to him that opens himſelf, Men will hardly ſhew themselves averſe, but will (fair) let him go on, and turn their freedom of ſpeech to freedom of thought. And therefore it is a good ſhrewd Proverb of the Spaniard, Tell a lye, and find a Troth; as if there were no way of diſcovery, but by...1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St Alban. With a Table of the Colours of Good & Evil....

freedom of speech meaning in Tamil and Kannada

freedom of speech in Tamil

கட்டற்ற பேச்சுரிமை

freedom of speech in Kannada

ಸೊಲ್ಲೀಳಿಗೆ, ವಾಕ್‌ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ

Examples of freedom of speech in a sentence

  • It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.1969 February 24, Associate Justice Abe Fortas (Supreme Court of the United States), Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School...
  • Cyberspace may give freedom of speech more muscle than the First Amendment does.1994, Mike Godwin, “Pamphleteering in the Electronic Era: Hacking out a Digitized Proclamation of Rights”, in U.S. News & World Report...
  • “Of course, I know there might be limits to freedom of speech, but overall I don’t think being absorbed by China would be that bad,” said Mr.2022 March 1, Amy Qin, Amy Chang Chien, “Watching the War in Ukraine, Taiwanese Draw Lessons in Self-Reliance”, in The New York Times...
  • […] For to him that opens himſelf, Men will hardly ſhew themselves averſe, but will (fair) let him go on, and turn their freedom of ſpeech to freedom of thought.1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam...

Synonyms of freedom of speech

Origin of freedom of speech

The concept and the term are ancient; Athens’ democratic ideology of free speech (παρρησία (parrhēsía)) is thought to have emerged in the 5th or 6th century B.C.E. The first occurrence of the phrase freedom of speech recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1567, and it also appears in the English Bill of Rights, among other works: see the quotations.

Questions about freedom of speech

What does freedom of speech mean?
Freedom of speech means the right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.
What is freedom of speech in Tamil?
Freedom of speech in Tamil is கட்டற்ற பேச்சுரிமை. See Freedom of speech meaning in Tamil.
How do you use freedom of speech in a sentence?
It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.
What part of speech is freedom of speech?
Freedom of speech is a noun.
How do you pronounce freedom of speech?
Freedom of speech is pronounced /ˈfɹiː.dəm əv ˌspiːt͡ʃ/.

Words near freedom of speech in the dictionary

  1. freedom of movement
  2. freedom of navigation
  3. freedom of opinion
  4. freedom of panorama
  5. freedom of religion
  6. freedom of speech
  7. freedom of the city
  8. freedom of the press
  9. freedom of the seas
  10. freedom of thought
  11. freedom of trade

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freedom of speech (page history and authors); freedom of speech (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); freedom of speech (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-freedom_of_speech.ogg, en-au-freedom of speech.ogg.

Cite this entry: “freedom of speech.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freedom_of_speech. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.