public domain
noun
Simple meaning
Not being owned by anyone, and thus freely usable by everyone.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhblihkdohmaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpʌblɪkdoʊˈmeɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The state of not being owned by anyone, and thus freely usable by everyone.
specificallylaw
The realm of intellectual property which is not or no longer protected by copyrights or patents, and thus over which no person can establish a proprietary interest.
especially us
Land regarded as owned by the public, and not subject to a land patent or other forms of private ownership (for example, unowned prairie in the southwestern and western United States).
The state of not or no longer being confidential or secret.
also attributively
Often preceded by in the.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of not being owned by anyone, and thus freely usable by everyone.
Used this way, public domain is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.