VocabauraVOCABAURA

publicity

noun

Simple meaning

Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

puhblisuhtee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pəbˈlɪsəti

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something.

  2. Public interest attracted in this way.

  3. The quality of being public, not private.

  4. The condition of being the object of public attention.

  5. The quality of being open to public view

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something.

Used this way, publicity 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
Not strongly marked
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.

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “publicity”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

publicity stuntwide publicitypublicity givenpublicity campaignbad publicitynegative publicitypublicity departmentgood publicity

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • publicistnounPerson or profession

    Someone who publicizes.

  • publicationnounDerived noun

    A copy of a printed work offered for distribution.

  • publicizedadjectiveDerived adjective

    Made known.

  • publicisedadjectiveDerived adjective

    Made known.

  • publiclyadverbDerived adverb

    In a manner accessible to or observable by the public.

  • publicallyadverbDerived adverb

    In a manner accessible to or observable by the public.

  • publicizeverbDerived verb

    Make public.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • publicity mannounCompound term

    Someone employed to arrange publicity (for a firm or a public figure).

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • public relations mannounRelated term

    Someone employed to arrange publicity (for a firm or a public figure).

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Keep learning “publicity” by choosing the kind of practice you need next.

Know the meaning? Practice vocabulary in real situations.

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.