public health

American  

noun

1. health services to improve and protect community health, especially sanitation, immunization, and preventive medicine.

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Other Word Forms

• public-health
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of public health

First recorded in 1610–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

public health

Environmental and public health advocates have consistently opposed new smog check waivers, noting they increase exhaust emissions such as nitrogen dioxide that are damaging to human health.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

But the race and ethnicity change is also important and could trigger large implications for public health.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

That 2009 finding was the legal foundation for federal greenhouse gas emissions regulation, which classified six gases as a threat to public health and welfare.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

He vowed the government would take a "public health preventative approach" to tackle violence against women and push for stronger regulations of social media sites.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

He refused to go back to the States—at least, that’s what he told an American public health expert who visited him in the hospital—but he was thinking, “Please take me home.”

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French