English Online Dictionary. What means publicly? What does publicly mean?
English
Alternative forms
- publically (fairly rare)
- publickly, publiquely (obsolete)
- publictly (rare, Scotland, from code switching with Scots)
Etymology
From public + -ly.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpʌblɪkli/
Adverb
publicly (comparative more publicly, superlative most publicly)
- In public, openly, in an open and public manner.
- By, for, or on behalf of the public.
Usage notes
- publicly is more than 25 times more common than publically. Over the last 100 years, the relative frequency of publically has been increasing. publically is covered in Merriam-Webster and Collins. publicly is unusual in so far as -ic adjectives usually form adverbs by adding –ally.
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “openly”): privately, secretly
Derived terms
- publicly held
Translations
References
Further reading
- “publicly”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “publicly”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Scots
Alternative forms
- publictly
Etymology
From Early Modern English publiquely.
Adverb
publicly (not comparable)
- officially, in the presence of public representatives or on behalf the public
- openly, in the presence of other people
References
- “publicly, adv.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.