Definition of ADVERTISEMENT

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

|Updated on: 13 Jun 2018

Examples: advertisement in a Sentence

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

This news comes after the Trump administration on Thursday announced a new, multimillion dollar public awareness advertisement campaign aimed at curbing opioid addiction among young people.

— daniella diaz, CNN, "House set to vote on more than 20 bills to combat opioid addiction," 8 June 2018
In November, The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com started running articles and advertisements encouraging people to nominate companies as Top Workplaces.

— the enquirer, Cincinnati.com, "Top Workplaces Cincinnati: 38,695 surveyed at 184 local firms to pick winners for 2018," 7 June 2018
Less than a month before election day, Kim and Leno encouraged each other’s supporters to list the other as their second-place choice, appearing on campaign fliers and political advertisements together.

— dominic fracassa, SFChronicle.com, "SF mayor’s race: So far, ranked-choice votes put Leno in lead over Breed," 6 June 2018
It's also been photographed for print advertisements by brands like Ralph Lauren and Vera Bradley.

— danielle tullo, House Beautiful, "Remember the Delta Nu Sorority House in Legally Blonde? This Is it in Real Life," 5 June 2018
There’s also some murmurs among devs that the tech giant might add tracking or advertisements to all of GitHub’s sites, according to Slashdot.

— shoshana wodinsky, The Verge, "Microsoft buying GitHub has led to some extremely nerdy memes," 5 June 2018
Colorful cans and graphic B’s fill Bissell’s feed, popping off the screen as art pieces as much as advertisements.

— gary dzen, BostonGlobe.com, "Bissell Brothers beers are beautiful on the inside and out," 5 June 2018
Using political advertising data, Chen and Rohla found that cross-partisan Thanksgiving dinners were further shortened by around 2.6 min on average for every 1,000 political advertisements aired in the traveler’s home media market.

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "How Smartphones Proved the 2016 Election Ruined Thanksgiving," 1 June 2018
Stop finding reasons to smear brands which use good intentioned advertisements.

— lindsay weinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, "Zosia Mamet, Evan Jonigkeit Model J. Crew's New Political Tees," 31 May 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