Word.ws English Dictionary

prior restraint

prior restraint noun: a restriction on expression imposed before the fact against particular speech or ideas (as opposed to restrictions against general subject matter or imposed after the fact against a particular instance of expression).

Noun

prior restraint (plural prior restraints)

  1. A restriction on expression imposed before the fact against particular speech or ideas (as opposed to restrictions against general subject matter or imposed after the fact against a particular instance of expression).

Forms of prior restraint

pluralprior restraints
alternative formprior censorship
alternative formpre-publication censorship

Questions about prior restraint

What does prior restraint mean?
Prior restraint means a restriction on expression imposed before the fact against particular speech or ideas (as opposed to restrictions against general subject matter or imposed after the fact against a particular instance of expression).
What part of speech is prior restraint?
Prior restraint is a noun.
What is the plural of prior restraint?
The plural of prior restraint is prior restraints.

Words near prior restraint in the dictionary

  1. prior claustral
  2. prior conventual
  3. prior knowledge
  4. prior probabilities
  5. prior probability
  6. prior restraint
  7. prior restraints
  8. prior to
  9. priorable
  10. prioracy
  11. priorate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prior restraint (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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Cite this entry: “prior restraint.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prior_restraint. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.