What word means the right to speak?

The word that means the right to speak, on the USCIS reading vocabulary list, is Speech. Speech, in the constitutional sense, refers to the expression of ideas and opinions, and freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental rights protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The First Amendment, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, provides in part that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." The Supreme Court has interpreted the speech clause expansively, applying it to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment under Gitlow v. New York (1925) and protecting many forms of expression including political speech, symbolic speech (such as flag burning, protected in Texas v. Johnson, 1989), religious speech, and commercial speech (with reduced protection).

Some categories of speech receive less or no First Amendment protection, including incitement to imminent lawless action (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1969), true threats, fighting words, obscenity (Miller v. California, 1973), child sexual abuse material, and defamation of private figures. Schools, government workplaces, and the military have greater leeway to regulate speech in those settings.

Free speech is the basis for many American civic traditions, including political advertisements, public protest, journalism, religious sermons, satire, and academic debate. The First Amendment also protects four other freedoms closely related to speech: religion, the press, assembly, and petition.

Internationally, freedom of speech is a defining feature of liberal democracies and contrasts sharply with authoritarian regimes that suppress dissent. On the reading test Speech may appear in a sentence such as "What does the First Amendment protect?" or "Citizens have the right to free speech."