Meaning & use
closely held
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounbusinessfinance
Having most of its shares owned by a small group of people, often one family.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a closely held firm. After linking verbs, write it without a hyphen: the firm is closely held.
Patterns
- a closely held company
- a closely held business
- be closely held
The bakery is a closely held company, with all the shares belonging to the same family.
Investors rarely get the chance to buy stock in a closely held firm because so few shares are traded.
After the founder died, the closely held business passed to her two children.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Kept secret or shared with only a few people.
Grammar: Used before a noun to describe information or beliefs: closely held secrets, closely held views.
Patterns
- closely held information
- closely held beliefs
The exact recipe is a closely held secret known only to two employees.
These were closely held beliefs that she rarely discussed in public.
Common combinations
- closely held company
- A closely held company does not have to publish as much financial information.
- closely held corporation
- The tax rules for a closely held corporation differ from those for a public one.
- closely held shares
- Most of the closely held shares belong to the founder's family.
- closely held secret
- The location of the tomb remained a closely held secret for centuries.
Synonyms and how they differ
- private
- Private is the everyday word for a business not traded on the stock market; closely held specifically stresses that a few owners hold nearly all the shares.
- family-owned
- Family-owned says the owners are relatives; a closely held business may be owned by a few partners who are not related.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: closely held or close-knit?
closely held vs close-knit
Close-knit describes a group of people who support each other, such as a family or community; closely held is about who owns a company's shares.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'closely held' correctly?
Choose one answer.
In business use, closely held means a small group owns most of the shares, as in option 1. Option 0 describes a close relationship, which needs 'close-knit'; option 2 uses the literal action of holding something, which needs 'held close' or 'held tightly'; option 3 wrongly uses closely held to mean a private location.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “closely held”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.