closure

American  

[kloh-zher] / ˈkloʊ ʒər /

noun

closures plural

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

Derived Forms

• nonclosure
  noun
• preclosure
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• closures
  plural

Etymology

Origin of closure

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

Explanation

Closure is the end or the closing down of something. It can be physical — like the closure of your local library — or emotional, like the closure you experience when you finally come to terms with the end of a romance. Closure comes from the Latin claus ("shut"), and it has many different shades of meaning. A road closure blocks that road from traffic. If you find closure after an emotional hardship, you're ready to move on. An obstruction in a small passage, like a pipe, is also a closure, as is the button on your sweater. In debate, closure (usually cloture), stops debate and starts the vote.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

closure closures closured

That pickup over the first four months of the war between the U.S. and Iran was almost entirely due to higher energy prices, driven by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The Hormuz closure has only lent greater significance to the Red Sea, the only other maritime route for oil shipments from global heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

Twenty-eight jobs are at risk at the Jodrell Bank site in Cheshire, but its closure would also affect the work of nearly 3,000 scientists who use it in their research.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

The closure was announced in a post by Wind & Sea on Instagram last week.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

When you break up with your boyfriend, you get closure by drawing a mustache on their yearbook picture.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Leveraged ETFs and their siblings, inverse funds, are risky, and their frenzied proliferation that kicked into overdrive 2025 may be overshadowing their big jump in closures this year.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Nearly 100,000 people have been affected by evacuation or stay-at-home orders because of the fires, which have burned through campsites and forced road closures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

This has been whispered about and lamented since the COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary theater closures across the country that have since become permanent, but it is rare to hear it expressed so candidly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Labour representatives and the German state of Lower Saxony, who both take a dim view of plant closures, together hold more than half the seats on the supervisory board.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

She made the torn edges kiss and held them together with the closures, then put a wide bandage over all of it.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

Theatres are facing lower sales from the cost-of-living crisis only a year after most re-opened following closured prompted by Covid lockdowns.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2022

Bad enough to have Members working off at public meetings speeches that had been closured in Commons.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 8, 1893 by Burnand, F. C. (Francis Cowley), Sir

"I've never met him," he answered, and closured my next question by jumping up and helping Mrs. Wylton out of the taxi.

From The Sixth Sense A Novel by McKenna, Stephen

The qualifying adjective 'good' is dangerous, and before the time for the bill was half expired, Bozzy has closured it and the amendment.

From James Boswell Famous Scots Series by Leask, W. Keith (William Keith)

After another fight, the Government closured through an Appropriation Bill covering Supply for ten weeks, and the House was dissolved on 31st August, the election being fixed for 2nd October.

From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland

Related Words

• closing
• stoppage
• termination