IPO

American  

abbreviation

1. initial public offering: a company's first stock offering to the public.

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IPO British  

abbreviation

1. independent publicly owned company

2. stock exchange initial public offering

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IPO Cultural  

1. Abbreviation for i nitial p ublic o ffering; the first issuance of shares in itself by a public company.

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Etymology

Origin of IPO

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

Madison Air raises $2.2 billion in the largest IPO this year, and the largest from the industrial sector since 1999.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026

Cerebras filed for an IPO, highlighting its unique Wafer-Scale Engine chip that integrates AI computing cores and memory.

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

That would make the Jersey Mike’s IPO bigger than other recent restaurant IPOs.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS Investment Bank are the lead book-running managers for the IPO, according to Cerebras.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026

It is estimated that a person who invested $5,000 in Netflix at its 2002 IPO would have about $30,000 by January 2010, about $200,000 by January 2015, and about $1.4 million by January 2020.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly