publishing

noun

Simple meaning

The act of making books, magazines, or music available to the public

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

puhblihshing

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpʌblɪʃɪŋ

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

The industry of publishing, including the production and distribution of books, magazines, web sites, newspapers, etc.
Something published; a publication.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The industry of publishing, including the production and distribution of books, magazines, web sites, newspapers, etc.

Used this way, publishing 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.

More ways to use publishing

“The company is publishing a new series of children's books.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Industry

book publishingwest publishing

Business

publishing companypublishing firmpublishing corporation

Other combinations

publishing housedesktop publishingpublishing group

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

publishverbBase word
Put into print.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

publishernounPerson or profession · specialist
A firm in the publishing business.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

publishing housenounCompound term
A firm in the publishing business.
publishing companynounCompound term
A firm in the publishing business.
publishing conglomeratenounCompound term
A conglomerate of publishing companies.
publishing empirenounCompound term
A conglomerate of publishing companies.
publishing firmnounCompound term
A firm in the publishing business.
desktop publishingnounCompound term
The use of microcomputers with graphics capacity to produce printed materials.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: industry of publishing

publication

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “publishing” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

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.