private company

noun

British.

1. a company whose shareholders may not exceed 50 in number and whose shares may not be offered for public subscription.

private company

noun

1. a limited company that does not issue shares for public subscription and whose owners do not enjoy an unrestricted right to transfer their shareholdings Compare public company

Word History and Origins

Origin of private company¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

In France, "only a government agency can neutralise a drone," said the security source, meaning that a private company would not be allowed to disable a drone by jamming it.

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Remember this is a private company, albeit one recently valued at a half-trillion dollars.

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I can’t tell you whether this is a bubble yet, but I can say this: Never before has one private company been so central to the stock market’s success.

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After leaving Google in 2020, Martinis co-founded his private company, QoLab, in 2022 with a belief that advanced semiconductor chips are the path to achieving usable quantum computers.

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It is very unusual to see the chief executive of a private company questioned quite so forcibly by politicians in a parliament to which they are not accountable.

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