Definitions for Public
ˈpʌb lɪkpub·lic

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.9 / 7 votes

1. populace, public, worldnoun

   people in general considered as a whole

   "he is a hero in the eyes of the public"

2. publicadjective

   a body of people sharing some common interest

   "the reading public"

3. publicadjective

   not private; open to or concerning the people as a whole

   "the public good"; "public libraries"; "public funds"; "public parks"; "a public scandal"; "public gardens"; "performers and members of royal families are public figures"

4. publicadjective

   affecting the people or community as a whole

   "community leaders"; "community interests"; "the public welfare"

WiktionaryRate this definition:3.3 / 3 votes

1. publicnoun

   The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.

   Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.

2. publicadjective

   Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment.

3. publicadjective

   Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc.

4. publicadjective

   Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community.

5. publicadjective

   Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes.

6. publicadjective

   Traded publicly via a stock market.

7. Etymology: From publik, public, public, publique et al., and their source, publicus, alteration (probably after pubes) of populicus, from populus. Compare people.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Public

   In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising. In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field. Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onwards, and suffered more recent years from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder.https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cn_xdtIjrrQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. public

   Public generally refers to something that is accessible or available to the general population. It can refer to spaces or services that are maintained or funded by the government and are open to all members of the public without any discrimination. It can also refer to information, discussions, or activities that are meant for open participation or knowledge dissemination among the general public. Public can also describe something related to the community, society, or the people as a whole, rather than being limited to a specific individual or private entity.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:2.0 / 2 votes

1. Publicadjective

   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

2. Publicadjective

   open to the knowledge or view of all; general; common; notorious; as, public report; public scandal

3. Publicadjective

   open to common or general use; as, a public road; a public house

4. Publicnoun

   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

5. Publicnoun

   a public house; an inn

6. Etymology: [L. publicus, poblicus, fr. populus people: cf. F. public. See People.]

FreebaseRate this definition:2.5 / 4 votes

1. Public

   In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science, psychology, marketing, and advertising. In public relations and communication science, it is one of the more ambiguous concepts in the field. Although it has definitions in the theory of the field that have been formulated from the early 20th century onwards, it has suffered in more recent years from being blurred, as a result of conflation of the idea of a public with the notions of audience, market segment, community, constituency, and stakeholder. The name "public" originates with the Latin "populus" or "poplicus", and in general denotes some mass population in association with some matter of common interest. So in political science and history, a public is a population of individuals in association with civic affairs, or affairs of office or state. In social psychology, marketing, and public relations, a public has a more situational definition. John Dewey defined a public as a group of people who, in facing a similar problem, recognize it and organize themselves to address it. Dewey's definition of a public is thus situational: people organized about a situation. Built upon this situational definition of a public is the situational theory of publics by James E. Grunig, which talks of nonpublics, latent publics, aware publics, and active publics.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:3.5 / 2 votes

1. Public

   pub′lik, adj. of or belonging to the people: pertaining to a community or a nation: general: common to or shared in by all: generally known.—n. the people: the general body of mankind: the people, indefinitely: a public-house, tavern.—ns. Pub′lican, the keeper of an inn or public-house: (orig.) a farmer-general of the Roman taxes: a tax-collector; Publicā′tion, the act of publishing or making public: a proclamation: the act of printing and sending out for sale, as a book: that which is published as a book, &c.—ns.pl. Pub′lic-bills, -laws, &c., bills, laws, &c. which concern the interests of the whole people; Pub′lic-funds, money lent to government for which interest is paid of a stated amount at a stated time.—ns. Pub′lic-house, a house open to the public: one chiefly used for selling beer and other liquors: an inn or tavern; Pub′lic-institū′tion, an institution kept up by public funds for the public use, as an educational or charitable foundation; Pub′licist, one who writes on or is skilled in public law, or on current political topics; Public′ity, the state of being public or open to the knowledge of all: notoriety; Pub′lic-law (see International).—adv. Pub′licly.—adjs. Pub′lic-mind′ed, -spir′ited, having a spirit actuated by regard to the public interest: with a regard to the public interest.—ns. Pub′licness; Pub′lic-opin′ion, the view which the people of a district or county take of any question of public interest; Pub′lic-pol′icy, the main principles or spirit upon which the law of a country is constructed; Pub′lic-spir′it, a strong desire and effort to work on behalf of the public interest.—adv. Pub′lic-spir′itedly.—n. Pub′lic-spir′itedness.—n.pl. Pub′lic-works, permanent works or improvements made for public use or benefit.—Public health, the department in any government, municipality, &c. which superintends sanitation; Public holiday, a general holiday ordained by parliament; Public lands, lands belonging to government, esp. such as are open to sale, grant, &c.; Public orator, an officer of English universities who is the voice of the Senate upon all public occasions; Public school (see School).—In public, in open view. [Fr.,—L. publicus—populus, the people.]

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. public

   Accessible to people.

   Members of the public can choose to either have their online profiles public or private.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on February 24, 2020  

2. ---

   public

   The population of a country.

   The public have a right to have a say in the running of their country - democracy is a form of power to the people i.e. the public.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on April 5, 2020  

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. PUBLIC

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Public is ranked #64200 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Public surname appeared 310 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Public.
   
   81.9% or 254 total occurrences were White.
   9% or 28 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   3.5% or 11 total occurrences were Asian.
   2.9% or 9 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

1. • People

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Public' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #286

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Public' in Written Corpus Frequency: #806

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Public' in Nouns Frequency: #470

4. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Public' in Adjectives Frequency: #29

How to pronounce Public?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Public in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Public in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Public in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of Public in a Sentence

1. David Bergstein:

   Structurally they are betting the farm and everything possible to get through these midterms, and they are just opening up the checkbook to do it. ' Public investment shrinks as safety net balloonsWhatever the immediate political impact, if President Joe Biden ultimately signs anything like the proposed program, it would mark a new era in Washington's role in the economy.Over the past 50 years, federal spending, as a share of the nation's economic output, has averaged about 20.6 %, according to calculations by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a centrist group that argues for budgetary restraint. Washington has significantly exceeded that level only in times of crisis : Spending reached 24 % of the nation's gross domestic product during Obama's first term immediately after the 2008 financial crisis and roughly 32 % during the Covid pandemic, federal figures show. ( Federal spending as a share of the economy reached its modern high of more than 40 % at the height of World War II.) Though federal spending over the past half century has remained relatively constant at about one-fifth of the economy, the composition of that spending has shifted dramatically. Over that period, public investment -- defined primarily as federal spending on infrastructure, education and training, and support for research and development -- has declined, while the safety net -- including such payments to individuals as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance and various tax credits for families -- has soared. Its totally different from anything put forward by Obama or Clinton. In terms of any kind of coherent strategic focus theres been nothing like this since the build-out of the suburbs, and the buildup of the educational system.Josh Bivens, research director, Economic Policy InstituteIn 1969, federal figures show, public investment and payments to individuals each consumed nearly one-third of total federal spending, an amount equal to about 6 % of the economy. By 2019, the last year before Washington poured huge sums into the Covid crisis, public investment had fallen to just 12.5 % of Responsible Federal Budget while payments to individuals had grown past 70 %. Public investment now equals only about 2.5 % of the economy, while payments to individuals consume more than five times as much.The exact distribution between public investment and safety net spending in the Democratic plans isn't known, because the party hasn't released details on the funding levels in the $ 3.5 trillion budget blueprint that Senate Democrats recently agreed on. But it's clear that the proposal -- coupled with the bipartisan infrastructure agreement advancing on a separate track -- would represent a huge expansion on both fronts.The infusion of new money for public investment might be most striking, given how steadily it has lost ground in federal priorities. Public investment fell from about 30 % of federal spending in the late 1960s to about 20 % by the late 1970s and 15 % by the mid-1990s, a plateau from which it's since drifted further down except for a brief recovery under Obama's first-term stimulus plan. The budget plans Senate Democrats are advancing would provide a more lasting turnaround. The bipartisan plan would spend almost $ 600 billion on.

2. John Adams:

   Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honor, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions

3. André Breton:

   The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.

4. Richard M. Nixon:

   I made my mistakes, but in all my years of public life, I have never profited from public service. I've earned every cent. And in all of my years in public life I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.

5. Marcus Low:

   It leaves us with one less caregiver to be on assignment, and that leaves us short-staffed. Public health experts say testing delays present a major hurdle to reducing infections and tracking those who have been in close contact with a person who is positive for the virus. Thats why researchers are working to develop rapid tests that can be cheaply produced, self-administered and provide immediate, reliable results. For now, most tests to diagnose COVID-19 require laboratory processing, which means a built-in delay. Guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that states, as they lift final virus restrictions, have a turnaround time of less than two days. But its unclear whether states have access to detailed data showing whether they are meeting the CDC standard, including how long it takes to process tests at independent labs. Labs track their own turnaround times, but the CDC said data such as how long it takes for a test to get to a lab and for a provider to receive the result and notify the patient are not tracked. That makes it difficult to determine a meaningful average of what patients are experiencing in each state. In the absence of publicly available federal data, the AP earlier this month surveyed nine states that were experiencing a 14-day uptick in new positive cases, plus New York, which has had the most COVID-19 cases. The state lab in New York was taking up to three days to report results to patients. California officials said the statewide turnaround time was 48 to 72 hours, depending on the lab. In Utah, anecdotal information suggested that results took 24 to 72 hours. Most of the 10 states surveyed said they did not have data on turnaround times for commercial labs in their state, creating another information gap. Health experts said this was not unusual, that state health departments have not typically been responsible for tracking individual laboratory turnaround times. Its a good question of who should be responsible for tracking this information and providing it back to the public, said Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious diseases with the Association of Public Health Laboratories. There are other factors that can cause delays, from the time of day the test is taken to whether a lab shuts down for the evening. Staffing issues and shortages of testing supplies also can slow the process. Even people visiting the same testing location can have widely different experiences. Earlier this month, Jeff Barnes, a music therapist in metro Atlanta, went to the same drive-thru testing location a week after his wife and two daughters. They were still waiting when he received his results the next day. Theirs wouldnt come for seven days. Barnes said he was concerned what a similar delay would mean if schools reopen in the fall. They are going to have to make it more efficient, Barnes said. If I knew (my daughter) was in a classroom with 20 kids and 10 of them had results pending, I dont know that I would send her. Until rapid tests are widely available, health experts say it will continue to take a day or two to get results under the best circumstances. That creates more opportunities for people who might be infected but feel fine to pass the virus along to others. In late April and May, the state lab in Alabama had trouble acquiring reagents, the chemical substances used to process tests. That led to intermittent delays in reporting results, up to five days from when the lab received the specimen, according to Dr. Karen Landers, assistant state health officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health. Those problems have since been resolved, and the lab now has a turnaround time between 24 and 72 hours from the time it receives samples. One of the largest commercial laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, recently reported its average turnaround time as one day for priority patients and two to three days for all other populations. The company said it expects increased demand to result in longer waits of more than thee days. Other countries face similar challenges. Wait times in China vary by city, from as little as one day in Shanghai to four days in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged. In Japan, tests usually yield results within two days. Mandatory tests, such as those at airports, often come out sooner, according to the health ministry. Results in India initially took around 24 hours. But as infections and testing increased, so did delays. Now results often take two to three days or as long as a week, depending on location. The nearly two-week wait in South Africa makes effective treatment nearly impossible.

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