How to spell public

Public is spelled P-U-B-L-I-C. Pub, then LIC: the same L you hear in publication, pub-lic.

hear itpub·lic/'pəblɪk/adjectiveSounds

What it means: Open to or shared by all people.

In a sentence: We had a fun picnic in the public park.

Same family: publicly, publicity, publication, publicize, publicist. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Public” comes from Latin *publicus* (also *poplicus*), meaning “of the people” or “belonging to the people.” It is related to *populus*, the Latin word for “people,” which you can also see in words like “population” and “popular.”

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