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

Mexico City's Zócalo … is the country's main public square and the second largest in the world after Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

—Natalia Cano

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

There are, of course, American cities with public squares. —Jeanne Bonner, CNN Money, 19 Dec. 2025

To be locked away for decades was not, in his eyes, more humane than being torn apart in a public square—though Damiens himself might have had a different opinion. —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 8 Dec. 2025

Across Brazil, people celebrated in bars and public squares that warm Carnival Sunday night as if the country had just won the World Cup. —Caio Delcolli, IndieWire, 26 Nov. 2025

This marked the second time that one of the three concerts the legendary artist held at Bellas Artes during his career was screened in the country’s main public square. —Natalia Cano, Billboard, 9 Nov. 2025

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