closure

American  

[kloh-zher] / ˈkloʊ ʒər /

noun

1. the act of closing; the state of being closed.

2. a bringing to an end; conclusion.

3. something that closes or shuts.

4. closer.

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

6. Phonetics. an occlusion of the vocal tract as an articulatory feature of a particular speech sound.

7. Parliamentary Procedure. a cloture.

8. 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.

9. Mathematics.

   1. the property of being closed with respect to a particular operation.

   2. the intersection of all closed sets that contain a given set.

10. Psychology.

    1. the tendency to see an entire figure even though the picture of it is incomplete, based primarily on the viewer's past experience.

    2. a sense of psychological certainty or completeness.

       a need for closure.

11. Obsolete. something that encloses or shuts in; enclosure.

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verb (used with or without object)

closured, closuring

1. Parliamentary Procedure. to cloture.

closure British  

/ ˈkləʊʒə /

noun

1. the act of closing or the state of being closed

2. an end or conclusion

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

4. (in a deliberative body) a procedure by which debate may be halted and an immediate vote taken See also cloture guillotine gag rule

5. 1. the resolution of a significant event or relationship in a person's life

   2. a sense of contentment experienced after such a resolution

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

7. 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

8. logic

   1. the closed sentence formed from a given open sentence by prefixing universal or existential quantifiers to bind all its free variables

   2. the process of forming such a closed sentence

9. maths

   1. the smallest closed set containing a given set

   2. the operation of forming such a set

10. 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

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verb

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

Other Word Forms

• nonclosure noun
• preclosure noun

Etymology

Origin of closure

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

Example Sentences

A number of councils announced the closure of public facilities and parks.

From BBC • Apr. 4, 2026

Krinsky observed that the ETF lost most of its value before closing in December 2020, while the Dow Jones Coal Index has seen a massive surge since the ETF’s closure.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 4, 2026

But after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz upended global energy supply chains, “nobody’s talking about reacceleration now,” said Guy Berger, a labor economist.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026

Its near-total closure is impacting global supplies of important commodities including oil, liquefied natural gas and fertilizer and leading to sharp rises in energy prices.

From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026

I look up closure and it says: the state of experiencing an emotional conclusion to a difficult life event such as the death of loved one.

From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine

Related Words

• closing
• stoppage
• termination