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

That makes the company vulnerable to state action, as its platforms drive tough conversations, taking on the role of online public squares of sorts that amplify anti-government voices. — Priyanka Salve, CNBC, 30 July 2026

Both are afflicted by high overdose rates, overwhelmed police forces, parks and public squares often captive to drug use, and the theft and disorder that accompany all of that. — Michael Powell, The Atlantic, 30 July 2026

That is not a political belief—attempting to assassinate a head of state or planting a bomb in a public square. — Eric Cortellessa, Time, 30 July 2026

They largely are carried out by hanging in a public square, where cranes mounted on trucks serve as gallows. — Los Angeles Times, 28 July 2026

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