DictionaryAI

publicity

noun
pub-LIS-i-tee/pʌbˈlɪsɪti/

4 meanings of publicity

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    Advertising and related efforts intended to draw public interest toward something.

    The band's manager arranged publicity ahead of the album release.

    Months of publicity built excitement before the museum opened its doors.

    Similarpromotion, advertising, marketing

    Note

    A noun that can name the material as well as the effort. In Gay Community News (1979), a man is charged for posting publicity, meaning the notices themselves. It is usually uncountable, so you post publicity, not a publicity. Keep it apart from the attention it wins: publicity in this sense is what someone produces, not what the public gives back.

  2. 2
    noununcountable
    The state of being the object of widespread public attention.

    The young actor struggled with the sudden publicity that followed his breakout role.

    Politicians learn to live with constant publicity, both flattering and harsh.

    Similarattention, fame, exposure, limelight, spotlight

    Oppositeprivacy, obscurity, anonymity

  3. 3
    noununcountable
    The public interest that advertising or promotional activity has attracted.

    The controversy generated more publicity than any ad campaign could have.

    Word of mouth gave the little shop publicity it never paid for.

    Similarattention, exposure, coverage

    Note

    Here publicity is the result rather than the work: the attention a campaign or a scandal actually earns. The axiom quoted in Modern Railways in 1963, "any publicity is good publicity," turns on this meaning, since attention counts whatever its tone. Unlike the state of being watched, it is something a person or product gets more or less of, as in more publicity or free publicity.

  4. 4
    noununcountable
    The quality of being public rather than private.

    The publicity of legislative debates allows citizens to scrutinize their representatives.

    Reformers argued that the publicity of trials guards against secret abuses of power.

    Similaropenness, transparency

    Oppositesecrecy, privacy

    Note

    The meaning the word's history explains most directly. It came from French publicité and Medieval Latin publicitas, built on Latin publicus, "public, general." Here publicity means openness to view, the opposite of privacy, with no advertising in it. Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1847–48) uses it of a theater box. It usually takes of plus a setting or proceeding, as in the publicity of a trial or of a debate.

Practice

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Origin

From French publicité, from Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, from Latin pūblicus ("public, general"). It can also be analyzed as public + -ity.