public company

American  

noun

British.

1. a company that has more than 50 shareholders and whose shares are offered for public subscription.

---

public company British  

noun

1. a limited company whose shares may be purchased by the public and traded freely on the open market and whose share capital is not less than a statutory minimum; public limited company Compare private company

---

public company Cultural  

1. A company that sells shares in itself to the public to raise capital. When a previously privately owned company offers shares, it is said to “go public.”

---

Example Sentences

The soon-to-be public company has published a new website to help individual investors understand SpaceX and how to potentially get access to the stock.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 4, 2026

Quantinuum’s debut as a public company appeared to be of key interest on Wall Street, as it provided another way to invest in quantum computing.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 4, 2026

How SpaceX trades early in its life as a public company will be important for OpenAI and Anthropic.

From Barron's • Jun. 3, 2026

“It would be our responsibility as a public company to show up to shareholders, and to the world, with an ecosystem that we can stand behind that is high-integrity,” Kadon said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026

It will be for the courts to decide in how so far that money is to be applied to the liquidation of debts incurred by the deceased as director of a public company.

From The Secret House by Wallace, Edgar