public
/ˈpʌb.lɪk/ adjective, noun, verb
Forms publics publicking publicked publick publicke publike publique
- adjective Able to be known or seen by everyone; happening without concealment; open to general view.
- adjective Open to all members of a community, as opposed to only a segment of it; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. “public library public park”
- adjective (business) Of a company: having shares of stock traded publicly, for example, through a stock market.
- adjective Pertaining to the people as a whole, as opposed to a group of people; concerning the whole community or country.
- adjective Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the government or state on behalf of the community, rather than by a private organization. “public housing public officer public prosecutor public servant”
- adjective Pertaining to a person in the capacity in which they deal with other people on a formal or official basis, as opposed to a personal or private capacity; official, professional. “public face public image”
- adjective (not comparable, by extension, object-oriented programming) Of an object: accessible to the program in general, not only to a class or subclass.
- adjective Pertaining to nations collectively, or to nations regarded as civilized; international, supernational.
- noun (countable, uncountable) Chiefly preceded by the: members of the community or the people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group. “Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.”
- noun Preceded by a possessive determiner such as my, your, or their: a group of people who support a particular person, especially a performer, a writer, etc.; an audience, a following.
- noun (often public relations) Often preceded by the and a qualifying word: a particular demographic or group of people, or segment of the population, sharing some common characteristic. “the cinema-going public”
- noun (sociology) A group of people sharing some common cultural, political, or social interest, but not necessarily having any interactions with each other.
- noun Chiefly preceded by the: a collective body of a politically organized nation or state; a body politic, a nation, a state; also, the interest or well-being of such a collective body; the common good.
- noun (US, university slang) At Harvard University: a penalty imposed on a student involving a grade reduction which is communicated to the student's parents or guardian.
- noun (uncountable) Chiefly in in public: the presence of spectators or people generally; the open.
- verb (transitive, originally Scotland, archaic) To make (something) openly or widely known; to publicize, to publish.
- noun (non-native speakers' English, neologism) An internet publication.
Synonyms
alehouse boozer boozing ken bousing ken drinker drinkery gargle-factory gin joint groggery local nineteenth hole pot-house pub public house rummery saloon tavern watering hole commonweal public interest populace world
Antonyms
Etymology
The adjective and noun are derived from Late Middle English publik, publike (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public or public affairs; (noun) a generally observable place or situation”), from Anglo-Norman public, publik, publique, Middle French public, publique, and Old French public (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public; official; (noun) community or its members collectively; nation, state; audience, spectators collectively”) (modern French public, publique (obsolete)); and from their etymon Latin pūblicus (“of or belonging to the community, people, or state; general, public”), an alteration of poplicus (influenced by pūbēs (“adult men; male population”)), from poplus (“community; the people, public; nation, state”) (later populus; from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”); further origin uncertain, possibly from Etruscan or from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -icus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Related to people, populus, etc.
The Middle English word displaced native Old English ceorlfolc and folclic.
The verb is derived from the adjective.
Semantic loan from Russian па́блик (páblik) and Ukrainian па́блік (páblik, “public webpage on a blog or on social media”), both borrowed from English public: see etymology 1.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; --opposed to private; as, the public treasury.
- adjective Open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious; as, public report; public scandal.
- noun The general body of mankind, or of a nation, state, or community; the people, indefinitely; as, the American public; also, a particular body or aggregation of people; as, an author's public.
- noun A public house; an inn. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott. In public, openly; before an audience or the people at large; not in private or secrecy.
Etymology [L. publicus, poblicus, fr. populus people: cf. F. public. See People.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “public”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details