public
part of speech
adjective (public); noun (the public, uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Public means for everyone to use or see, not private: a public park, a public toilet. tree →
2) The public means ordinary people in general. tree →
3) Public means done in front of other people: public speaking. tree →
4) Public can mean run or paid for by the government: a public school, public transport. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and safety: in public places (shops, buses, parks) stay with your adult and agree on a meeting point if you get lost; do not share private information in public online posts. In civics: public services include libraries, hospitals and police. Phrases: in public, public transport, public library, the general public, make public.
examples
- New York, 1877 tree →
- license: Public Domain tree →
- versionSource: https://archive.org/details/sketchoftalmudwo02kali (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →
- Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- The public library is free for everyone. tree →
- We took public transport to the city. tree →
- Do not pick your nose in public! tree →
- The museum is open to the public on Sundays. tree →
- Keep your passwords private, not public. tree →
- She is shy about public speaking. tree →
- Public toilets are near the car park. tree →
- The news was made public on TV. tree →
- He took an active part in public affairs. tree →
note
Opposite: private. Trap: in the UK a «public school» is an expensive private school, while in the USA, Canada and Australia a «public school» is a free government school. «The public» takes a singular or plural verb.
In the corpora
- A charity is an organisation that helps people, animals or the environment, paid for by money the public gives.
- Most people accept tax as the price of public services; they argue about how much and what it is spent on.
- The others in it may have said nothing in public, and a fair person remembers that.
- In November 2019 Prince Andrew stepped back from public duties after a BBC interview about his friendship with a man convicted of serious crimes.
- A public apology is judged by what the person does next; saying sorry in front of millions is hard.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «public» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.