public health

noun

: the art and science dealing with the protection and improvement of community health by organized community effort and including preventive medicine and sanitary and social science

Examples of public health in a Sentence

a disease that poses a serious threat to public health She got her degree in public health. Public health officials warned of an influenza outbreak.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This week, Robert F. Kennedy – Trump’s highly controversial pick to lead public health agencies for the country as head of the US Department of Health and Human Services – faces members of Congress for his confirmation hearings. Deidre McPhillips, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025 The rules, which took effect Jan. 14, are essentially the same as those set in last year’s public health order. Meg Wingerter, The Denver Post, 28 Jan. 2025 Experts only discovered an effective treatment for diphtheria around the turn of the 20th century, when public health agencies and pharmaceutical companies started producing an antitoxin serum derived from the blood of horses. David Kindy, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Jan. 2025 This mandate also involves building and strengthening public health laboratories to watch out for disease trends as well as guide containment efforts. Simar Bajaj, NPR, 28 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for public health 

Word History

First Known Use

1617, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of public health was in 1617

Dictionary Entries Near public health

Cite this Entry

“Public health.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/public%20health. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

Medical Definition

public health

noun
pub·​lic health ˌpəb-lik- How to pronounce public health (audio)
: the art and science dealing with the protection and improvement of community health by organized community effort and including preventive medicine and sanitary and social science

More from Merriam-Webster on public health

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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