enclosure
Americannoun
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enclosures
plural
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something that encloses, as a fence or wall.
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something that is enclosed in or along with something else, as a photograph sent in a letter.
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an area, such as a plot of ground or an indoor surface, surrounded by a fence, rope, or other barrier.
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the separation and appropriation of land by means of a fence.
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an act or instance of enclosing.
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the state of being enclosed.
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Roman Catholic Church. the part of a monastery or convent canonically separated or restricted as the living quarters of the religious, which a person may leave only with special permission or gain entrance to by special dispensation.
noun
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the act of enclosing or state of being enclosed
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a region or area enclosed by or as if by a fence
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the act of appropriating land, esp common land, by putting a hedge or other barrier around it
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history such acts as were carried out at various periods in England, esp between the 12th and 14th centuries and finally in the 18th and 19th centuries
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a fence, wall, etc, that serves to enclose
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something, esp a supporting document, enclosed within an envelope or wrapper, esp together with a letter
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a section of a sports ground, racecourse, etc, allotted to certain spectators
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of enclosure
Explanation
An enclosure is something that closes you in, like a pen or a cage. When a cobra disappeared from an enclosure at the Bronx Zoo, the entire Reptile House had to be shut down until the snake was found. An enclosure can also be something that's included in an envelope with a cover letter of some sort. If you're sending a letter to your literary agent and you’re including a few pages of your latest limericks, you might put "enc." at the bottom of the letter, to indicate that you've included something extra in the envelope — an enclosure.
Vocabulary lists containing enclosure
Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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List 3
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The Industrial Revolution - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Boucher said her organization received permission from the National Park Service to set up a Missy Trap, an easy-to-build enclosure meant to capture pets in a humane manner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Yorkshire Wildlife Park said their "thoughts and heartfelt sympathies" were with the man's family and confirmed the rare Amur tiger, called Altai, remained in the enclosure and would not be euthanised.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
From the walkway, visitors can view the park's Amur tigers in their enclosure which includes woodland, grassland and a waterfall pool.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
British police responded to reports of a man entering the enclosure at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near the northern city of Doncaster.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
“Just hope he’s still fine after he’s faced this lot,” said Charlie grimly, looking out over the dragons’ enclosure.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Documents said the abandoned venture planned to include "reptile, mongoose and several animal enclosures".
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
"Use of these small metal enclosures for any reason is unprecedented among detention facilities OIG has inspected and presents significant risks to detainee health and safety," the report said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
Artificial-intelligence systems have been displaying some eye-opening new abilities in recent weeks: breaking out of their enclosures, hacking other companies, lying to people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The CSA warned the incident shows that AI "agents... find a way" - a reference to the film Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs escape their enclosures.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
A few of the lumbering mammals stood grazing in the enclosures.
From "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel José Older
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
