public square

noun

1

: an open public area in a city or town where people gather

St. Mark's Square in Venice is sinking at a time when this Italian city's popularity is rising. The world's most famous public square now floods an average of three out of every five days.

—Tom Crosby

2

: the sphere of public opinion

In an August 2007 speech, then-New York governor Eliot Spitzer expounded upon Reinhold Niebuhr and the virtues of humility in the public square.

—Lisa Miller

… using legal action to cow an opponent into silence, and withdrawal from the public square.

—Mark Steyn

Examples of public square in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some of the world’s best skateboarders will take over one of Paris’ largest public squares at the 2024 Olympics. —Danielle Directo-Meston, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 July 2024

Read More: Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics The Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris, will provide an alluring skateboarding backdrop in the heart of the city. —Sean Gregory, TIME, 26 July 2024

By turning this new structure perpendicular to existing Omega buildings, Ban created a new public square, aptly named Omega Plaza. —Justin Davidson, Curbed, 18 July 2024

States should also invest significantly in creating public digital infrastructure, stronger academic research, and a better digital public square. —Marietje Schaake, Foreign Affairs, 26 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1757, in the meaning defined at sense 1