What word means to govern or control?

The word that means to govern or control, on the USCIS reading vocabulary list, is Rule. To rule, in the civic sense, is to exercise authority over a country, state, or other political entity, and the noun rule means a law or regulation.

The word appears prominently in two important phrases on the citizenship test: rule of law and rule by the people. Rule of law is the principle that no one is above the law, that everyone (including government officials, the President, and judges) must obey the law, and that the law must be applied equally to all. The principle is foundational to the U.S. constitutional order and is reinforced by Article VI's Supremacy Clause, by the requirement that all federal and state officials take an oath to support the Constitution, and by the system of judicial review that lets courts strike down government actions that violate the Constitution.

Rule by the people, sometimes phrased as government of the people, by the people, for the people (a phrase from Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address), captures the principle of popular sovereignty: ultimate political power rests with the people themselves, who exercise it through elections, the amendment process, and other forms of civic participation. The Preamble to the Constitution begins "We the People," embodying that idea.

The verb to rule also appears in the negative sense the United States rejected at its founding: the rule of a king. The Declaration of Independence enumerates the abuses of King George III to justify breaking from British rule and establishing a self-governing republic. On the reading test Rule may appear in a sentence such as "What is the rule of law?" or "Citizens make the rules."