public health

noun

Definition of public health

: 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

The direct damage to communities like the town of Paradise, which was nearly wiped out by the Camp Fire last November, is the primary concern for public health and emergency officials. — Erin Allday, SFChronicle.com, "Bay Area warned to prepare for smoky air during wildfire season," 9 Sep. 2019 Still, the authors wrote that their findings do not support the need for public health or clinical interventions to address pubic hair grooming as a risk factor for STIs. — Samantha Lauriello, Health.com, "Removing Pubic Hair Doesn’t Raise STI Risk, Study Finds," 5 Sep. 2019 Besides making public health and safety a priority, the new law also makes clear that cities and counties can approve oil and gas regulations that are stronger than the state’s. — Judith Kohler, The Denver Post, "New rules for oil, gas flow lines up next for Colorado regulators," 5 Sep. 2019 The proposal has faced an onslaught of criticism from scientific, public health and environmental groups. — Sean Reilly, Science | AAAS, "EPA’s controversial ‘secret science’ plan still lacks key details, advisers say," 28 Aug. 2019 UNT-Dallas is an industry partner at Sunset, offering its expertise on the academy’s two areas of study: public health and education. — Corbett Smith, Dallas News, "‘It allows us to dream big:’ The fastest-growing college in Texas fills a gap by focusing on homegrown students," 26 Aug. 2019 Eventually, the channel will cover more, such as educational topics from police departments on a variety of public health and safety topics. — Deanna Weniger, Twin Cities, "Local station wants to be source for limited English speaking communities before and after a crisis," 7 July 2019 Instead, their actions directly go against public health and public will. — Glamour, "Abortion Bans Are a Call to Action—Not a Reason to Give Up," 29 Mar. 2019 Those public health concerns could bring major economic losses for the city. — Washington Post, "Will America’s ‘Least Sustainable City’ vote to kill rail transit?," 24 Aug. 2019

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

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Last Updated

13 Sep 2019

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The first known use of public health was in 1617

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More Definitions for public health

public health

noun

English Language Learners Definition of public health

: the health of people in general

US : the science of caring for the people of a community by giving them basic health care and health information, improving living conditions, etc.

See the full definition for public health in the English Language Learners Dictionary

public health

noun

pub·lic health | \ ˌpəb-lik-

Medical Definition of public health

: 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