publicly

• publically (fairly rare)
• publickly, publiquely (obsolete)
• publictly (rare, Scotland, from code switching with Scots)

From public +‎ -ly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌblɪkli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

publicly (comparative more publicly, superlative most publicly)

1. In public, openly, in an open and public manner.

   criticize someone publicly

   publicly announce something

   • 2013 December, “Clerical Pedophilia by Mexicans in Mexico and Other Countries”, in CNN en Español‎^[1], page 10:

     Although the Holy See publicly expressed its rejection of sexual abuse and pedophilia and expressed its commitment to cooperate with civil authorities when cases of pedophile priests were found¹², there are no known cases of bishops or cardinals, being found responsible for abusing children or covering up for pedophilia in their parishes.

   • 2024 April 3, Stephen Breyer, “Stephen Breyer: The Supreme Court I Served On Was Made Up of Friends”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 6 April 2024:

     Recently, the Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney Barrett spoke together publicly about how members of the court speak civilly to one another while disagreeing, sometimes vigorously, about the law.

2. By, for, or on behalf of the public.

   publicly available

• publicly is more than 25 times more common than publically.^[1] Over the last 100 years, the relative frequency of publically has been increasing.^[1] publically is covered in Merriam-Webster^[2] and Collins.^[3] publicly is unusual in so far as -ic adjectives usually form adverbs by adding –ally.^[4]

• (antonym(s) of “openly”): privately, secretly

• publicly held

• “publicly”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “publicly”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• publictly

From Early Modern English publiquely.

publicly (not comparable)

1. officially, in the presence of public representatives or on behalf the public
   • 1858, Alexander Crawford Lindsay, quoting Lord Edzell, Lives of the Lindsays‎^[3], page 388:

     Albeit I have stayit here in Edinburgh ane year and three months bygane, craving ever to be tryit of the unhappy slaughter of my umquhile Lord of Spynie, whereof I protest before God and your Majesty I am maist innocent, my Lord of Crawford will neither call me (prosecute me) therefor, nor stay, baith privately and publicly, yea in face of your Majesty's honourable Privy Council, to calumniate me.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. openly, in the presence of other people

• “publicly, adv.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.