public domain

American  

noun

Law.

1. the status of a literary work or an invention whose copyright or patent has expired or that never had such protection.

2. land owned by the government.

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public domain British  

noun

1. lands owned by a state or by the federal government

2. the status of a published work or invention upon which the copyright or patent has expired or which has not been patented or subject to copyright. It may thus be freely used by the public

3. able to be discussed and examined freely by the general public

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Other Word Forms

• public-domain adjective

Etymology

Origin of public domain

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

Meanwhile, the Bible bursts with globally familiar stories, all of which are in the public domain.

From Salon • Mar. 29, 2026

Johnson is among those critical of the whole process, saying last year that it had not brought "a single new or interesting fact into the public domain".

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026

Lawyer Catrin Evans for the publisher suggested that for some Mail articles mentioned in John and Furnish's case, a "certain amount of the information... had already been put into the public domain".

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

Contemporary music is not in the public domain and skaters are responsible for clearing their own music.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2026

Congress effectively outlawed their communal property, passing vast acreages into the public domain, tracts which then suddenly wound up in the hands of large American ranching enterprises like the Devine Company.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols