advertise
Formsadvertises, advertising, advertised
- 1
- 2To provide information about a person, goods, or services in order to influence others.
Politicians advertise constantly during election season.
The firm advertises aggressively across several platforms.
Note
Here the verb stands without an object. A business or a person simply advertises, and what usually follows is the place where the notice appears: on the internet, in a local newspaper, across several platforms. Once the product itself becomes the object, the verb has moved to the sales-driven transitive use. Without an object, the stress falls on the act of putting something before the public.
- 3To give public notice of something; to announce it publicly.
The university advertised the lecture series across campus.
Officials advertise upcoming meetings in the local gazette.
Similarpublicize, announce, promote
Note
The word's French ancestry shows most plainly in this sense. Middle English advertisen came from Anglo-Norman advertir, "to inform", and Middle French advertir, "to warn, give notice to". Announcing a lecture or a meeting is still a way of giving notice. The ending was reshaped along the way: a French -iss- was made to match verbs in -ise and -ize, probably helped by the noun advertisement.
- 4In gin rummy, to discard a card of one's preferred suit in order to mislead an opponent into thinking it is unwanted.
She advertised a low spade, and her opponent foolishly discarded another.
Skilled players advertise cards they secretly need.
Note
A card player's bluff that borrows the language of publicity. The misleading discard is a signal sent across the table. On Gin Rummy: An All-American Roundup (1947) calls it an advertisement, and the opponent may "answer" it by discarding in return. That book's advice is to answer only when you cannot yet tell which suit the other player wants, since an advertisement exists to draw out exactly that card.
Less common meaning
- 5To notify someone of something; to call their attention to it.
He wrote to advertise his patron of the impending lawsuit.
The letter advertised them of the king's displeasure.
Note
Older prose aimed the verb at the person rather than the news. Someone was advertised of a thing, or advertised that it was so, very often in the passive. In John Speed's history of 1611, the queen is "advertised of her husband's dethronization". Florio's Montaigne of 1603 has Socrates "being advertised that" a god had called him wise. The French sense behind the public-notice meaning survives here intact. Today this use reads as archaic.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of advertise apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
This comes from Middle English advertisen, from Anglo-Norman advertir ("to inform") and Middle French advertir, avertir ("to warn, give notice to"). The French -iss- infix shifted to -ise/-ize, probably influenced by the noun advertisement.