publicity

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/ See IPA manual

Freq #5512

Meanings

1

noun
Attention or interest from the public, especially through newspapers, TV, or social media.

The scandal received a lot of publicity in the press.
2

noun
Activities done to make people notice and become interested in something.

The film studio spent millions on publicity before the release.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · activities done to make... promotion

Word family

Forms publicities

Derived forms antipublicitynonpublicityoverpublicityprepublicitypublicity-hound

Related forms public publicistpublicness

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

prejudicial publicity
public attention or media coverage that harms someone's interests or fair treatment

Adjective + noun

Proverbs (3)

See all

Etymology

From French publicité, From Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, accusative singular of pūblicitās, from Latin pūblicus (“public, general”). Morphologically public + -ity.

publicité French pūblicitātem la-med pūblicus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# publicity

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/
**Frequency rank:** 5512

## Meanings
1. Attention or interest from the public, especially through newspapers, TV, or social media.
2. Activities done to make people notice and become interested in something.

## Examples
- The scandal received a lot of publicity in the press.
- The film studio spent millions on publicity before the release.

## Derived Forms
- antipublicity
- nonpublicity
- overpublicity
- prepublicity
- publicity-hound

## Related Forms
- public
- publicist
- publicness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: publicité
- Root: pūblicitātem
- Root: pūblicus

## Etymology
From French publicité, From Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, accusative singular of pūblicitās, from Latin pūblicus (“public, general”). Morphologically public + -ity.

## AI Etymology
Publicity comes from French publicité, From Medieval Latin pūblicitātem, accusative singular of pūblicitās, from Latin pūblicus (“public, general”). Morphologically public + -ity. The historical chain includes publicité (French), pūblicitātem (la-med), pūblicus (Latin). In present-day English it covers attention or interest from the public, especially through newspapers, TV, or social media and activities done to make people notice and become interested in something. The wider family includes derived forms such as antipublicity, nonpublicity, overpublicity, prepublicity, publicity-hound and related forms such as public, publicist, publicness.

## Topics
- People & Society

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