closure

[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 (def 2).
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.
Compare constriction (def 5).
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.
Compare error of closure.
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.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object), closured, closuring.
12.
Parliamentary Procedure. to cloture.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < Middle French < Latin clausūra. See close, -ure
Related forms
nonclosure, noun
preclosure, noun
British Dictionary definitions for closures

closure

/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.
(mainly US)
  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
verb
11.
(transitive) (in a deliberative body) to end (debate) by closure
Word Origin
C14: from Old French, from Late Latin clausūra bar, from Latin claudere to close
Word Origin and History for closures

closure

n.

late 14c., "a barrier, a fence," from Old French closure "enclosure; that which encloses, fastening, hedge, wall, fence," also closture "barrier, division; enclosure, hedge, fence, wall" (12c., Modern French clôture), from Late Latin clausura "lock, fortress, a closing" (source of Italian chiusura), from past participle stem of Latin claudere "to close" (see close (v.)). Sense of "act of closing, bringing to a close" is from early 15c. In legislation, especially "closing or stopping of debate." Sense of "tendency to create ordered and satisfying wholes" is 1924, from Gestalt psychology.