closure

[ kloh-zher ]

/ ˈkloʊ ʒər /

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See synonyms for closure on Thesaurus.com

noun

the act of closing; the state of being closed.

a bringing to an end; conclusion.

something that closes or shuts.

closer¹ (def. 5).

an architectural screen or parapet, especially one standing free between columns or piers.

Phonetics. an occlusion of the vocal tract as an articulatory feature of a particular speech sound.Compare constriction (def. 5).

Parliamentary Procedure. a cloture.

Surveying. completion of a closed traverse in such a way that the point of origin and the endpoint coincide within an acceptably small margin of error.Compare error of closure.

Mathematics.

the property of being closed with respect to a particular operation.
the intersection of all closed sets that contain a given set.

Psychology.

the tendency to see an entire figure even though the picture of it is incomplete, based primarily on the viewer's past experience.
a sense of psychological certainty or completeness: a need for closure.

Obsolete. something that encloses or shuts in; enclosure.

verb (used with or without object), clo·sured, clo·sur·ing.

Parliamentary Procedure. to cloture.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of closure

1350–1400; Middle English <Middle French <Latin clausūra.See close, -ure

OTHER WORDS FROM closure

non·clo·sure, nounpre·clo·sure, noun

Words nearby closure

closing costs, closing price, closing time, clostridium, Clostridium difficile, closure, clot, cloth, clothbound, cloth-cap, clothe

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use closure in a sentence

He staged a protest against beach closures on the Fourth of July.
Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider does not approve of anti-maskers using ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’|radmarya|September 17, 2020|Fortune
It can hold 12 letter size hanging folders, and has a latchable closure with a built in handle.
Great filing cabinets for your home office|PopSci Commerce Team|September 17, 2020|Popular-Science
Rounded corners help keep the book from wear and tear and the elastic closure keeps pages protected.
Notable notebooks for writing and drawing|PopSci Commerce Team|September 17, 2020|Popular-Science
To better understand what happened in the Patrick Henry cheer program, you have to go back to March when the closures first occurred.
School Sports Became ‘Clubs’ Amid the Pandemic – Now Two Coaches Are Out|Ashly McGlone|September 17, 2020|Voice of San Diego

Amid shutdowns and mandatory store closures, even e-commerce sales haven’t been enough to save some of the biggest brands in the businesses from declaring bankruptcy in the months since the pandemic began.
What retailers should expect going into a holiday season during a pandemic|Rachel King|September 16, 2020|Fortune
It was definitely an anti-closure ending, and if the character—and show—has life behind it, it leaves the door wide open.
Michael C. Hall on Going Drag for ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ and Exorcising ‘Dexter’|Marlow Stern|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Moscow officials insist that the hospitals listed for closure lacked professional services and often stayed half empty.
Putin’s Health Care Disaster|Anna Nemtsova|November 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The closure of transport was a perfect example of the far-reaching consequences of clashes in the disputed capital.
The Radicals Who Slaughtered a Synagogue|Creede Newton|November 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“Let us think of his family and his parents and hopefully today they have achieved some measure of closure,” Johnson added.
Money, Murder, and Adoption: The Wild Trial of the Polo King|Jacqui Goddard|October 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Writing the book has given Cumming “some sense of closure,” a statement of a “more holistic version of me.”
Alan Cumming: The Truth About My Father|Tim Teeman|October 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He zipped open the closure of his helmet and tilted the helmet back.
The Worshippers|Damon Francis Knight
In this way does a lazy world consign discussion to silence with the cynical closure.
Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete|George Meredith
The interval between the closure and the opening may be noticeable, in which case we call the consonant double.
The Sounds of Spoken English|Walter Rippmann
Slight variations in the place of closure due to the place of articulation of neighbouring sounds in a word are inevitable.
The Sounds of Spoken English|Walter Rippmann
Closure of the glottis by the inflation of the ventricles imposes no strain on the vocal cords.
The Psychology of Singing|David C. Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for closure

closure

/ (ˈkləʊʒə) /

noun

the act of closing or the state of being closed

an end or conclusion

something that closes or shuts, such as a cap or seal for a container

(in a deliberative body) a procedure by which debate may be halted and an immediate vote takenSee also cloture, guillotine, gag rule

mainly US

the resolution of a significant event or relationship in a person's life
a sense of contentment experienced after such a resolution

geology the vertical distance between the crest of an anticline and the lowest contour that surrounds it

phonetics the obstruction of the breath stream at some point along the vocal tract, such as the complete occlusion preliminary to the articulation of a stop

logic

the closed sentence formed from a given open sentence by prefixing universal or existential quantifiers to bind all its free variables
the process of forming such a closed sentence

maths

the smallest closed set containing a given set
the operation of forming such a set

psychol the tendency, first noted by Gestalt psychologists, to see an incomplete figure like a circle with a gap in it as more complete than it is

verb

(tr) (in a deliberative body) to end (debate) by closure

Word Origin for closure

C14: from Old French, from Late Latin clausūra bar, from Latin claudere to close

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

closure

Origin of closure

OTHER WORDS FROM closure

Words nearby closure

Words related to closure

How to use closure in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for closure

Word Origin for closure