Meaning & use
closure
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The act or fact of shutting something, such as a business, road or institution, either for a time or for good.
Grammar: Countable for specific events: a road closure; uncountable in general: closure is planned.
Patterns
- the closure of something
- closure due to something
The closure of the factory left hundreds of people without jobs.
Road closures caused long delays this morning.
The library announced a temporary closure for repairs.
noununcountable
A feeling that a painful event has ended and can be accepted, allowing you to move on.
Grammar: Uncountable: find closure, not a closure.
Patterns
- find closure
- closure after something
- bring closure
The trial gave the family a sense of closure.
She visited the grave to find closure.
He wrote a letter to get closure after the breakup.
nouncountable
A device or part that fastens something shut, such as a zipper, lid or button.
Grammar: Countable, often in descriptions of products: a magnetic closure.
Patterns
- a closure on something
- a zip closure
The bag has a magnetic closure.
The jar's closure was too tight to open.
The coat has a button closure at the neck.
Word forms
| plural | closures |
|---|
Common combinations
- road closure
- A road closure forced traffic onto side streets.
- school closure
- Heavy snow led to a school closure.
- find closure
- Many survivors struggle to find closure.
- seek closure
- He sought closure by visiting his old home.
- permanent closure
- The store announced its permanent closure.
Synonyms and how they differ
- shutdown
- Shutdown stresses stopping operations, often of a machine or organization, while closure is a more general word.
- resolution
- Resolution means a settling of a problem, and closure adds the emotional sense of being able to move on.
- conclusion
- Conclusion is the end of an event or argument, but closure suggests emotional acceptance.
- fastener
- Fastener is the technical word for a device that holds things together, and closure is used mainly in product descriptions.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: closure or closer?
closure vs closer
Closer, said /ˈkləʊzə/, can mean a person who finishes a deal or a baseball pitcher, and is not the same as closure.
Practice
After years of not knowing what happened, the family finally found ___.
Choose one answer.
In the emotional sense, closure is uncountable, so no article is used. Closing and closes are not used for this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “closure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.