publicly

▪ I. publicly publ‧ic‧ly [ˈpʌblɪkli] adverb

FINANCE if a company is publicly held or publicly owned, or its shares are publicly traded, its shares are available to be bought and sold by investors:

• the annual reports that publicly held companies send to their shareholders

• Abbey National converted from a building society into a publicly listed company.

  [m0] ▪ II. public public ² adjective

1. connected with all the ordinary people in a country, who are not members of the government or do not have important jobs:

• The law was changed as the result of public pressure.

2. available for anyone to use:

• a public telephone

3. connected with the government and with the services it provides for people:

• 55% of university funding in Britain comes from public money.

• We do not believe he is fit for public office (= the job of being part of a government ) .

4. known about by most people:

• The report will be made public (= told to everyone ) in mid-January.

• The membership of the Board was public knowledge.

5. intended for anyone to know, see, or hear:

• Demands for a public investigation have been ignored.

— publicly adverb :

• It is time for multinational companies publicly to acknowledge that they have not always acted properly.

6. go public FINANCE to become a public company (= a company that has shares owned by the public):

• Investors expected the share price to rise steeply after the company went public.

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publicly UK US /ˈpʌblɪkli/ adverb GOVERNMENT

► done, owned, or paid for by the government: publicly funded/financed »

The upgrade to the railway network will not be publicly funded.