The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Publication \Pub`li*ca"tion\, n. [L. publicatio confiscation:
   cf. F. publication. See Publish.]
   1. The act of publishing or making known; notification to the
      people at large, either by words, writing, or printing;
      proclamation; divulgation; promulgation; as, the
      publication of the law at Mount Sinai; the publication of
      the gospel; the publication of statutes or edicts.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The act of offering a book, pamphlet, engraving, etc., to
      the public by sale or by gratuitous distribution.
      [1913 Webster]

            The publication of these papers was not owing to our
            folly, but that of others.            --Swift.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. That which is published or made known; especially, any
      book, pamphlet, etc., offered for sale or to public
      notice; as, a daily or monthly publication.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. An act done in public. [R. & Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            His jealousy . . . attends the business, the
            recreations, the publications, and retirements of
            every man.                            --Jer. Taylor.
      [1913 Webster]

   Publication of a libel (Law), such an exhibition of a libel
      as brings it to the notice of at least one person other
      than the person libeled.

   Publication of a will (Law), the delivery of a will, as his
      own, by a testator to witnesses who attest it.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

publication
    n 1: a copy of a printed work offered for distribution
    2: the act of issuing printed materials [syn: issue,
       publication]
    3: the communication of something to the public; making
       information generally known
    4: the business of issuing printed matter for sale or
       distribution [syn: publication, publishing]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

237 Moby Thesaurus words for "publication":
   Christophany, Satanophany, account, acquaintance, advertisement,
   advertising, airing, albertype, angelophany, announcement, annual,
   appearance, attenuation, avatar, best seller, bimonthly, biweekly,
   blue book, book, book printing, booklet, bound book, briefing,
   broadcast, broadcasting, broadside, brochure, bulletin,
   chromotypography, chromotypy, chromoxylography, circumfusion,
   classic, collotype, color printing, coloring book, communication,
   communique, conveyance, daily, data, datum, declaration,
   definitive work, diffraction, diffusion, dilution, directory,
   disclosure, dispatch, dispensation, dispersal, dispersion,
   dissemination, dissipation, distribution, divergence,
   electronography, electrostatic printing, embodiment, enlightenment,
   epiphany, evaporation, evidence, evincement, expansion, expression,
   facts, factual information, familiarization, flier, flyer, folio,
   fortnightly, fragmentation, gen, general information, giving,
   graphic arts, gravure, great work, guidebook, halftone engraving,
   hand-out, handbill, handout, hard information, hardback,
   hebdomadal, history of printing, impartation, imparting,
   impartment, incarnation, incidental information, indication, info,
   information, instruction, intelligence, issuance, job printing,
   journal, juvenile, juvenile book, knowledge, leaflet, letterpress,
   letterpress photoengraving, light, limp-cover book, line engraving,
   lithography, lithogravure, lithophotogravure, magazine,
   magnum opus, manifestation, materialization, mention, message,
   mimeograph, monthly, newsletter, newspaper, nonbook, notebook,
   notice, notification, novel, offset, offset lithography, onset,
   opus, opuscule, opusculum, palaeotypography, pamphlet, paper,
   paperback, peppering, periodical, photo-offset,
   photochemical process, photoengraving, photogelatin process,
   photographic reproduction, photography, photolithography,
   phototypography, phototypy, photozincography, picture book,
   planographic printing, planography, playbook, pneumatophany,
   pocket book, prayer book, presentation, printing, printmaking,
   proclamation, production, promotional material, promulgation,
   pronouncement, pronunciamento, proof, propagation, psalmbook,
   psalter, publicity, publicizing, publishing, putting out,
   quarterly, radiation, release, relief printing, report, reporting,
   revelation, rotary photogravure, rotogravure, scattering,
   scatterment, serial, sharing, sheetwork, shotgun pattern,
   sidelight, sketchbook, soft-cover, songbook, sowing, spattering,
   splay, spread, spreading, sprinkling, standard work, statement,
   stencil, storybook, strewing, tabloid, telling, the dope,
   the goods, the know, the scoop, theophany, three-color printing,
   title, tome, trade book, transfer, transference, transmission,
   transmittal, two-color printing, typography, typolithography,
   volatilization, volume, weekly, white book, white paper,
   wood-block printing, word, work, writing, xerography, xeroprinting,
   xylotypography, zincography



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

PUBLICATION. The act by which a thing is made public.
     2. It differs from promulgation, (q.v.) and see also Toullier, Dr. Civ.
Fr. Titre Preliminaire, n. 59, for the difference in the meaning of these
two words.
     3. Publication has different meanings. When applied to a law, it
signifies the rendering public the existence of the law; when it relates to
the opening the depositions taken in a case in chancery, it means that
liberty is given to the officer in whose custody the depositions of
witnesses in a cause are lodged, either by consent of parties, or by the
rules or orders of the court, to show the depositions openly, and to give
out copies of them. Pract. Reg. 297; 1 Harr. Ch. Pr. 345; Blake's Ch. Pr.
143. When it refers to a libel, it is its communication to a second or third
person, or a greater number. Holt on Libels, 254, 255, 290; Stark. on
Slander, 350; Holt's N. P. Rep. 299; 2 Bl. R. 1038; 1 Saund. 112, n. 3. And
when spoken of a will, it signifies that the testator has done some act from
which it can be concluded that he intended the instrument to operate as his
will. Cruise, Dig. tit. 38, c. 5, s. 47; 3 Atk. 161; 4 Greenl. R. 220; 3
Rawle, R. 15; Com. Dig. Estates by devise, E 2. Vide Com. Dig. Chancery, Q;
Id. Libel, B 1; Ibid. Action upon the case for defamation, G 4; Roscoe's Cr.
Ev. 529; Bac. Ab. Libel, B; Hawk. P. C. B. 1, c. 73, s. 10; 3 Yeates' R.
128; 10 Johns. R. 442. As to the publication of an award, see 6 N. H. Rep.
36. See, generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.