IPO

noun

ˌī-(ˌ)pē-ˈō 

plural IPOs

: an initial public offering of a company's stock

Examples of IPO in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The number of billionaires could expand as SpaceX went public in June, with Anthropic planning its own IPO later this year and OpenAI potentially following next year. — Jason Ma, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2026

That has led to speculation that bringing Sycamore’s specialty retail businesses together is a prelude to a potential sale of the group to another private equity firm, retail company or through an IPO. — David Moin, Footwear News, 18 Sep. 2026

The concern is not a hoax, not a marketing ploy meant to juice the value of companies about to have an IPO. — Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026

Moonshot has reportedly filed confidentially for a Hong Kong IPO, while DeepSeek is also reportedly preparing for a listing. — Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 17 Sep. 2026

Word History

Etymology

initial public offering

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

IPO

noun

ˌī-ˌpē-ˈō 

: an initial public offering of a company's stock