public corporation

American  

noun

1. a corporation, owned and operated by a government, established for the administration of certain public programs.

2. municipal corporation.

3. a large private corporation with many shares, which are sold to the public or traded on a stock exchange.

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public corporation British  

noun

1. (in Britain) an organization established to run a nationalized industry or state-owned enterprise. The chairman and board members are appointed by a government minister, and the government has overall control

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Etymology

Origin of public corporation

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

Air Canada began as a federal public corporation and has been private since 1988.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

Since 2017, they have been recognized as a public corporation everywhere in Germany.

From Reuters • Mar. 10, 2023

This new measure, I-135, would create a public corporation operating under state and local laws that would be run by a governing board.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 30, 2022

Rafael Hernandez, the speaker of Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives, said in a tweet that a public corporation administered by Puerto Rican providers, like PREPA, could “work more effectively than the current energy system.”

From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2022

John Gutfreund had done violence to the Wall Street social order—and got himself dubbed the King of Wall Street—when, in 1981, he’d turned Salomon Brothers from a private partnership into Wall Street’s first public corporation.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis