Word.ws English Dictionary

publicke

publicke is the obsolete spelling of public.

Meaning of public

Adjective

public (comparative more public, superlative most public)

  1. Able to be known or seen by everyone; happening without concealment; open to general view.
    • VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. 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
    1. Of a company: having shares of stock traded publicly, for example, through a stock market.
  3. Pertaining to the people as a whole, as opposed to a group of people; concerning the whole community or country.
    • [S]tanding publick Records have been kept of theſe vvell atteſted Relations, and Epocha’s made of thoſe unvvonted events.1667, J[oseph] G[lanvill], Some Philosophical Considerations Touching the Being of Witches and Witchcraft. […], London: […] E[llen] C[otes] for James Collins […], →OCLC, page 5
  4. 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
  5. 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

See all 22 meanings of public

Forms of publicke

comparativemore publicke
superlativemost publicke

Questions about publicke

What is publicke the obsolete spelling of?
Publicke is the obsolete spelling of public.

Words near publicke in the dictionary

  1. publicizing
  2. publick
  3. publickally
  4. publickation
  5. publickations
  6. publicke
  7. publickly
  8. publicks
  9. publicly
  10. publicly held
  11. publicly-held

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: publicke (page history and authors); public (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “publicke.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/publicke. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.