Published

How to spell published

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce published

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does published mean?

1. verbMade content available to the public in print or online, or issued a written work formally.
2. adjectiveExisting in printed or formally issued form; having appeared in print or online.

Published in a sentence

• verb

  The journal published her research after a long review.

• adjective

  The published figures showed a sharp rise in costs.

• verb

  The agency published the new safety guidelines online last week.

• adjective

  She is a widely published author with a loyal readership.

Where does published come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the past form of the verb 'publish', which traces back to the Latin publicare, meaning 'to make public' or 'to bring before the people', built on publicus, 'belonging to the people' or 'of the state'. English took the word in the 1300s by way of Old French 'publier', and the awkward shift from a French ending to the English '-ish' ending follows the same pattern seen in 'finish' (from 'finir') and 'punish' (from 'punir'). Originally to publish something simply meant to announce it openly to the community, with no printing involved; the bookmaking sense only came to dominate after the printing press spread across Europe. The same publicus root sits inside the everyday words 'public' and 'publicity', which is a handy reminder that the middle of the word is spelled 'pub-lic', not 'pub-lish' with a stray letter. The doubling that catches some writers is the simple '-ed' ending, since 'publish' already ends in a consonant and takes a plain '-ed' with no doubling.

How the word is built

• public- (from Latin publicus: of the people)
• -ish (verb-forming ending from French -iss)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)