Definition of ADVERTISEMENT

noun ad·ver·tise·ment \ ˌad-vər-ˈtīz-mənt ; əd-ˈvər-təz-mənt , -tə-smənt \

Updated on: 19 Apr 2018

Definition of advertisement

1 : a public notice; especially : one published in the press or broadcast over the air

a full-page advertisement for the movie

a TV advertisement

2 : the act or process of advertising something

The company has spent a lot of money on advertisement.

See advertisement defined for English-language learners

See advertisement defined for kids

Examples of advertisement in a Sentence

The advertisement will appear in three magazines.
He learned about the job from an advertisement in the newspaper.
The company has spent a lot of money on advertisement.

Recent Examples of advertisement from the Web

Dot-com profligacy included multi-million dollar parties, decadent offices, and expensive Super Bowl advertisements, all paid for by enormous net operating losses.

— ian bogost, The Atlantic, "The Dot-Coms Were Better Than Facebook," 13 Apr. 2018
Native advertisements — ads that imitate the appearance of the surrounding content — have been a darling of the publishing industry for delivering high margins and explosive growth year after year.

— benjamin mullin, WSJ, "Native Advertising Growth Projected to Slow," 11 Apr. 2018
The opposition was disadvantaged because of the ruling party’s dominance of public media and the overlap between government and Fidesz campaign advertisements, the OSCE said.

— Bloomberg.com, "Zuckerberg Testifies Before Senate Panel," 10 Apr. 2018
According to a company representative and the fine print in the advertisement, the bars are comprised of a base metal covered by one ounce of silver veneer.

— john tedesco, San Antonio Express-News, "Fact check: Are ‘Texas State Silver 100’ bars a good deal?," 10 Apr. 2018
Many of the Facebook pages ran advertisements, which were removed, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos said in an online post Tuesday.

— mike snider, USA TODAY, "Facebook deletes more Russian troll farm-affiliated accounts," 3 Apr. 2018
Monuments and historical museums are always mirrors, advertisements, time bombs.

— michael kimmelman, New York Times, "Charleston Needs That African American Museum. And Now.," 28 Mar. 2018
Among other things, the firm helped to model voter turnout, identify audiences for fund-raising appeals and advertisements, and specify the best places for Trump to travel to increase support.

— Anchorage Daily News, "Cambridge Analytica behaved appallingly, but don’t overreact," 20 Mar. 2018
Pop-up advertisements, some of them uncloseable, became so prevalent that browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were modified to try to stop them.

— The Economist, "Google embraces ad-blocking via Chrome," 15 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'advertisement.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of advertisement

Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French avertisement, advertissement, from avertiss-, advertiss-, stem of avertir, advertir "to notify, (reflexive) recognize, be mindful of" + -ment -ment — more at ¹advert

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 2

See Words from the same year

advertisement Synonyms

Synonyms

ad, announcement, bulletin, communiqué, notice, notification, posting, release;

bill, billboard, placard, playbill, poster, show bill, sign;

broadcast, cablecast, newscast, telecast;

advertising, billing, blurb, come-on, commercial, message, pitch, plugola, spot, word;

communication, dispatch, report;

annunciation, declaration, edict, proclamation, promulgation, pronouncement;

ballyhoo, boost, buildup, campaign, plug, promo, promotion, propaganda, publicity;

Other Business Terms

amortize, caveat emptor, clearinghouse, divest, due diligence, emolument, green-collar, marque, overhead, perquisite

ADVERTISEMENT Defined for English Language Learners

noun

Definition of advertisement for English Language Learners

: something (such as a short film or a written notice) that is shown or presented to the public to help sell a product or to make an announcement
: a person or thing that shows how good or effective something is
: the act or process of advertising