free speech
178
3.2
- noun
- /fri spiːtʃ/
- Formal
:
libertad de expresión
- In a democratic society, free speech allows citizens to express their opinions without fear of censorship.
- free speech rights
- free speech protections
- First Amendment free speech
So you're very pro free speech, pro capitalism.
- So you're very pro free speech, pro capitalism.
- When they did this, they defined free speech as the public square.
- And destroying property is not free speech and taken over.
- I don't believe in free speech for robots and bots.
- All journalism takes place within the free speech laws that all of us enjoy.
- It's it's the whole thing about free speech is that you are free to offend people.
- So what does free speech look like in these public platforms?
- It's all too easy to defend the free speech of people that you agree with.
- Elon, Elon, Elon, free speech means the government can't tell you what to say.
- You don't have free speech, generally speaking, on most platforms.
- Now I believe in free speech and I didn't.
- Concerns about free speech and the rights of defendants.
Examples
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Maybe they just believed in the principle of free speech more than he did.
Fiction book (2000) -
We saw this as a free-speech issue.
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So in that respect, free speech is alive and well.
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Are things good for free speech generally right now or not?
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When they did this, they defined free speech as the public square.
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- All I care about is free speech and free expression.
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As far as I was concerned, my free speech was being threatened.
Fiction book (1995) -
Of the issues mentioned here, free speech seems to me the one of most pressing importance.
Academic text (1991) -
I am, of course, talking about issues of free speech on university campuses.
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In this instance, protecting free speech may be a more substantial governmental interest.
Academic text (2008)
Synonyms
89
2.7
The right to say what you think without fear of government punishment
Antonyms
How Free
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'free' modifies 'speech' to indicate speech that is not constrained, so a learner who knows 'free' (not constrained) and 'speech' (expressing opinions) can infer the concept of speaking without interference. Context (e.g., 'the right to express one’s opinions') further disambiguates potential senses like 'free' = 'no cost', and many languages use equivalent constructions, supporting immediate comprehensibility.
Etymology
Free speech comes from the image of people standing in a town square and speaking without fear of being arrested or punished. So today free speech means the right 'to say what you think in public without being stopped by the government'.