notice
Verbnotices, noticing, noticed
Noun pluralnotices (some meanings)
Formsnotices, noticing, noticed
Pluralnotices (some meanings)
- 1To become aware of something, by seeing, hearing, or otherwise observing it, or by realizing it.
Few people notice the small changes a city makes over the years.
He noticed that the door had been left open.
UsagePatterns: notice that + clause, or notice someone doing something: noticed her crying.
- 2Information or a warning given to someone about something, often formally or before it happens.
We need at least a week's notice to process the request.
The store changed its hours without prior notice to customers.
UsageCommon phrases: without notice, a week's notice, at or on short notice.
Similarwarning, notification
- 3Advance notification that a job is ending, given by an employer to an employee or the other way around.
He handed in his notice after finding a better position.
Company policy requires a month's notice before an employee leaves.
UsageGive or hand in your notice to resign; note the apostrophes in two weeks' notice and a month's notice.
Similarresignation
- 4A written or printed announcement meant to inform people of something.
A notice on the bulletin board announced the schedule change.
The landlord posted notices in every hallway of the building.
UsagePut up or post a notice, a notice on a door or board.
Similarannouncement, sign, bulletin, poster
- 5Attention or awareness; the act of noticing something, or the attention or regard shown to someone.
The small print escaped the notice of most readers.
Something at the edge of the field came to his notice.
UsageCommon phrases include take notice of, take no notice of, and escape someone's notice.
Note
Isaac Watts in 1741 could still write of the notices which we take of other persons; that plural now sounds odd, and the sense is almost always uncountable.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Watts passage appeared in 1741, in the first edition of The Improvement of the Mind. archive.org
- Isaac Watts wrote the quoted words about taking notices of other persons. archive.org
Less common meanings
- 6A published critical review of a play, performance, or similar work.
The morning notices praised the lead actor's performance.
A single bad notice can sink a new production.
UsageUsually plural: good notices, the notices were mixed.
Similarreview, write-up, critique
Note
Theater talk usually puts this sense in the plural: the first-night notices, the notices were mixed. A New York Times review sets them beside the first-night reviewers and a single unequivocal rave. The word reads the reviews collectively, as a verdict on how a production was received rather than as one critic's essay.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A passage attributed to The New York Times Theater Reviews places notices alongside first-night reviewers and an unequivocal rave. en.wiktionary.org
- 7To remark upon or make mention of something.
Note
In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Mary Wollstonecraft says of the arguments used to degrade women "I must notice a few," meaning she will discuss them, not merely spot them. That mentioning use is now archaic, and a modern reader hears perception instead. In present-day prose, use mention, remark on or note. Keep this sense for reading older writers, where notice often signals that comment is coming.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was first published in 1792. en.wikisource.org
- Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and uses the exact words “I must notice a few.” gutenberg.org
- The quotation introduces discussion of arguments used to degrade women, supporting the interpretation of notice as commenting on them. gutenberg.org
- 8To give someone generous attention and treat them with favor.
She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners.
1815, [Jane Austen], EmmaNote
Jane Austen's Emma (1815) gives the clearest picture of this sense: "she would notice her; she would improve her" and introduce her into good society. To notice someone here is a kind of patronage, choosing to favor and cultivate them. The use is obsolete, and a modern reader would hear she noticed her as mere seeing, so it belongs to reading Austen, not to new writing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Jane Austen wrote Emma. gutenberg.org
- Emma was first published in 1815, despite the first-edition title page being dated 1816. janeaustens.house
- The quoted wording occurs in Emma, in narration describing Emma’s intentions toward Harriet, including introducing her into good society. en.wiktionary.org
- Notice here means to give favorable attention, consistent with patronage. en.wiktionary.org
- 9To show or be apparent, so that others are able to see or perceive it.
The blackness didn't notice so much when she was born; but it's unmistakeable now.
1954, Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
The word was borrowed from the Middle French noun notice, whose own source was Latin nōtitia. That Latin word also exists in English as notitia, a doublet of notice.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English notice was borrowed from Middle French notice. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle French notice derives from Latin nōtitia. en.wiktionary.org
- English also borrowed Latin notitia as notitia, a doublet of notice. en.wiktionary.org