How to Use public domain in a Sentence

public domain

noun
Definition of public domainnext
  • All of which, by the way, was very much in the public domain.
    — Andy Meek, BGR, 7 Mar. 2022
  • Now the cat’s out of the bag and the recording is out in public domain.
    — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2019
  • Moore said all of the research is in the public domain.
    — Tim Fitzpatrick, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 Sep. 2022
  • Patty rewrites the lyrics of songs that are in the public domain.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2019
  • Mount Graham was one of the first parcels to be placed in the public domain.
    — AZCentral.com, 20 Aug. 2021
  • Ranchers are charged $1.35 per month per cow for the use of the public domain.
    — Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Where that starts to change is in the new additions to the public domain.
    — Steven Lubar, Smithsonian, 1 Oct. 2019
  • These are some of the more famous names that will join the likes of Shakespeare and Beethoven in the public domain.
    — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 31 Dec. 2020
  • How big a cost are humans willing to bear to leave the planet?—lie in the public domain.
    — Sarah Scoles, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2017
  • The chilling 911 call of his wife, Ashley, is in the public domain.
    — Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2021
  • Very little is known about the man himself, and what is known has been in the public domain for a long time.
    — David Ellis, The Atlantic, 8 June 2019
  • There are a lot of things that have not yet been in the public domain yet that are relevant.
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 3 July 2021
  • Over the years, of course, British spies tried to put intelligence in the public domain.
    — Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2022
  • According to the Reno Memo, the design will be a public domain -— just like ours.
    — Lainey Seyler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Since the image of the American flag is in the public domain, anyone can use it.
    — Michael D. Breidenbach, The Atlantic, 4 July 2018
  • The financial details of the deal remain out of the public domain.
    — Izzy Colon, SPIN, 24 Jan. 2022
  • The rights for the film changed hands several times and weren’t renewed in the 1970s, which allowed the movie to fall into public domain.
    — Jeanne Bonner, CNN, 10 Dec. 2022
  • Both names are in the public domain, while Biscoff could be trademarked.
    — Daniel Michaels, WSJ, 12 July 2021
  • How much of all of the music industry stuff, the poop stuff, the Warhol-print stuff — how much does the whole public domain of it all play into this?
    — Sam Sanders, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2023
  • Roark says that while there was a lot of information about Melanie in the public domain, there wasn’t much about William.
    — Anne Easton, Forbes, 17 June 2022
  • Books old enough to be in the public domain may be available for free download online.
    — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 7 Apr. 2020
  • If the pandemic is to be countered on the scale required, the vaccines need to be made public domain.
    — Robert Zubrin, National Review, 25 Nov. 2020
  • Almost all of the music is classical and in the public domain.
    — Kalhan Rosenblatt, NBC News, 22 Sep. 2022
  • All of this scientific work has been in the public domain since mid-March.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2020
  • Just as in the private sector, there aren’t enough female CEOs in the public domain, either.
    — Shirley Leung, BostonGlobe.com, 24 June 2019
  • Welch said that in all, about 15 million acres were carved out of the public domain to be designated Apache lands.
    — AZCentral.com, 20 Aug. 2021
  • The suit was eventually settled, and the tape remained in the public domain.
    — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 6 Jan. 2022
  • The Sun Also Rises is another huge book that enters the public domain in the new year.
    — Adam Rowe, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2021
  • The previous owner would retain the rights to Life’s photography and content going back to the 1930s, as public domain laws dictate.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2024
  • The show’s fondness for the latter is particularly ironic given how many Christians hated Glee — but then again, public domain!
    — Vulture, 19 Dec. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'public domain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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