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Public vs Any - What's the difference?

public | any |

As an adjective public

is public.

As an adverb any is

to even the slightest extent, at all.

As a determiner any is

at least one; of at least one kind one at all.

As a pronoun any is

any thing(s) or person(s).

public

English

(wikipedia public)

Alternative forms

* publick, publicke, publique (all obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment.
  • * 2011 , Sandra Laville, The Guardian , 18 Apr 2011:
  • Earlier this month Godwin had to make a public apology to the family of Daniel Morgan after the collapse of a £30m inquiry into his murder in 1987.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}
  • Pertaining to all the people as a whole (as opposed a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc.
  • * 2010 , Adam Vaughan, The Guardian , 16 Sep 2010:
  • A mere 3% of the more than 1,000 people interviewed said they actually knew what the conference was about. It seems safe to say public awareness of the Convention on Biological Awareness in Nagoya - and its goal of safeguarding wildlife - is close to non-existent.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
  • , title=Money just makes the rich suffer, volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}
  • Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community.
  • * , chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.}}
  • * 2004 , The Guardian , Leader, 18 Jun 2004:
  • But culture's total budget is a tiny proportion of all public spending; it is one of the government's most visible success stories.
  • Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes.
  • * 2011 , David Smith, The Guardian , 10 May 2011:
  • Some are left for dead on rubbish tips, in refuge bags or at public toilets.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}
  • (of a company) Traded publicly via a stock market.
  • Antonyms

    * private

    Derived terms

    * go public * in public * initial public offering * public address system * public assistance * public domain * public eye * public figure * public good * public health * Public Health System * public holiday * public house * public intellectual * public interest * public intoxication * public key * public law * public leaning post * public library * Public Limited Liability Company * public office * public policy * public-private partnership * public property * public school * public servant * public service * public speaking * public transportation * public works * publican * publically * publicly held * publicness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group.
  • Members of the public may not proceed beyond this point.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
  • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=“Two or three months more went by?; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”}}
  • * 2007 May 4, Martin Jacques,
  • Bush and Blair stand condemned by their own publics and face imminent political extinction.
  • (archaic) A public house; an inn.
  • (Sir Walter Scott)

    Usage notes

    * Although generally considered uncountable, this noun does also have countable usage, as in the quotation above.

    Derived terms

    * antipublic * general public * * public relations * public-spirited

    Statistics

    *

    any

    English

    (wikipedia any)

    Alternative forms

    * anie (obsolete)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • To even the slightest extent, at all.
  • I will not remain here any longer.
    If you get any taller, you'll start having to duck through doorways!
  • * 1934 , edition, ISBN 0553278193, page 58:
  • I wasn't any too easy in my mind.

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • At least one; of at least one kind. One at all.
  • :
  • *Bible, (w) xi. 27
  • *:No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts,
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • No matter what kind.
  • :
  • *
  • *:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.}}

    Derived terms

    * any and all * any old * any press is good press * any time * anybody * anyhow * anymore * anyone * anyplace * anyroad * anything * anytime * anyway * anywhen * anywhence * anywhere * anywhither * anywho * anywhom * in any case * just any

    See also

    * some

    Pronoun

    (head)
  • Any thing(s) or person(s).
  • Any may apply.

    Statistics

    *