(law) In adversarial legal systems, a statement made by either party at the beginning of a trial or comparable factfinding proceeding, in which that party lays out their case, generally including the points of fact that they intend to demonstrate and to some degree indicating the rhetorical arguments for why they should prevail.

A speech bubble.

plural of speech balloon

(archaic) fine-sounding but empty phrases

(linguistics) Co-occurring with speech

(colloquial) Speech pathology. / (colloquial) A speech pathologist.

plural of speech-crier

(historical) One who hawked the broadsides containing the dying speeches of persons executed.

Synonym of dialogue tag

plural of speech tag