Publicly Or Publically? Which Is Correct?

One often misspelled word is publicly, and it is often misspelled as publically. Although this seems like just another case of people misspelling the word, this is much different because unlike other words, publically is still technically correct, only it’s not the common spelling.

The correct spelling is publicly. However, since publically is such a frequent mistake, there are dictionaries out there that consider it correct and a variant of ‘publicly’. You should use publicly.

The rest of this article will cover why publicly is correct, and how to use it.

Why Publicly Is Correct

Spelling publicly as publically is a common mistake. It’s so common that it’s considered a variant of publicly. If you put publically into a Google Doc, it’ll recommend you change it to publicly, but it won’t outright mark it as incorrect. Why is that?

It may seem strange that just because it’s a common error, it gets made into a proper word; like the word label being misspelled as lable. Although this is strange, because it’s one of the most common misspells, it’s to the point where it’s no longer completely incorrect.

The preferred, and more common, spelling is publicly, but if you use publically, you won’t be marked as wrong. To keep things simple, you should stick with writing publicly. If you’re writing this word for a formal document, then definitely stick with publicly.

How To Use Publicly

Publicly means to be seen in public by others. For example, if you cry in front of a crowd, you can say you cried publicly. It’s an adverb used to describe actions that take place in the public eye. If you’re trying to use it in a sentence, you should use it to describe a verb.

A synonym for this would be ‘openly’, which closely relates to publicly. If you’re looking for how to use it in a sentence, here are a few examples:

“Although he didn’t want to, Dylan performed publicly.”

“Gina never liked getting attention, which was why she never sang publicly.”

“Steve wondered if he should try dancing publicly.”

All three of those sentences show how to use publicly properly. Since it’s an adverb, it’s most commonly used to modify either an adjective, another adverb, or a verb.