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

The argument that these social media companies are merely digital bulletin boards in a virtual public square falls on deaf ears when their bottom lines directly benefit from algorithms that promote provocative content. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 12 Feb. 2025

The concert at the country’s main public square settled a pending debt with his Mexican fans, after postponing a presentation originally scheduled for September due to a domestic accident that resulted in five fractured ribs and forced him to suspend a series of shows in Mexico and Colombia. —Natalia Cano, Billboard, 19 Jan. 2025

Because that once promising social media public square has, instead, turned into a social media public hellhole. —Michael Schneider, Variety, 16 Jan. 2025

The women’s breaking competition will take place on Aug. 9, at the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris. —Sean Gregory, TIME, 23 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1757, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for public square

• aftercare
• anywhere
• billionaire
• chinaware
• debonair
• dinnerware
• disrepair
• doctrinaire
• earthenware
• everywhere
• frigidaire
• kitchenware