publishing

Pluralpublishings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The industry that produces and distributes books, magazines, newspapers, websites, and similar works.

   After graduating, she found work in publishing and never looked back.

   The rise of e-books reshaped publishing across the entire world.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of publish.

   The university is publishing the findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

   He keeps publishing essays even after retiring from teaching.

   Note

   Like any -ing form of a verb, it works two ways: after be in progressive tenses (is publishing the findings), and as a gerund that can still take an object (publishing a novel takes years). Without an object it can mean having one's work accepted, as in she has been publishing for a decade. The object is the quickest test against the industry noun: one publishes something, but one works in publishing.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A work that has been issued for public circulation; a publication.

   The archive holds every publishing the institute released last century.

   That publishing reached thousands of readers within its first week.

   Similarpublication, release, title

   Note

   Here the -ing noun names the thing issued rather than the act or business of issuing it, so it can be counted: one publishing, several publishings. Elizabeth Blades-Zeller's A Spectrum of Voices (2002) sets "the publishings of the Voice Foundation" beside two journal titles, meaning an organization's output taken as a body. Publication covers the same ground and can stand in for it in almost any such sentence.

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