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Glite Dictionary
💔 Emotional resolution 🏫 A shutdown 🚧 A blockage 🧩 Perceiving as whole 🗳️ End of debate 🗳️ To end discussion
closure

closure

1 6.9
The mind's way of seeing a whole shape when parts are missing
  • noun
  • /ˈkloʊʒər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : principio de cierre
  • Narrower rows promote canopy closure in just 33 days, helping to reduce erosion and control weeds.

Examples

  • What's the logical closure point?

    Clerks II (2006)

  • How will you provide closure to the lesson in a way that allows students to reflect on the lesson's learning target(s)?

    Academic text (2011)

  • The prayer is completely out of context and is therefore subversive of more traditional conventions of plotting and closure.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Currently, vegetation in each of the catchments is primarily juniper-dominated, with significant canopy closure.

    Academic text (2016)

  • In Gestalt psychology, the principle of closure helps us perceive incomplete shapes as whole figures.

  • The artist used the principle of closure in her painting to guide the viewer's eye to the missing elements.

  • Understanding the concept of closure allows psychologists to explain how we fill in gaps in visual perception.

Synonyms

law of closure
vsclosure
  • Specialized
7.7

A tendency to see an incomplete shape as a whole when your mind fills gaps

is the general tendency described rather than the formal named principle

Antonyms

incompleteness
3 5.9

A state where something has missing parts or information

Compounds

closure by compartment
  • UK
9.9

A way to stop debate on parts of a bill so it can pass faster

angle-closure glaucoma
  • Specialized
6.1

A sudden eye condition when the coloured part blocks fluid drainage, causing a rapid rise in pressure inside the eye

law of closure
  • Specialized
7.7

A tendency to see an incomplete shape as a whole when your mind fills gaps

Surface Forms

closure singular
closures plural

Morphology

closure = close (semi-transparent) = close + ure

The noun is formed from 'close' + '-ure' meaning an act or result, but the cited Gestalt-psychology sense is a specialized extension of 'making whole', so the relation is not fully obvious to general learners.

Etymology

Closure comes from the Latin claudere, 'to shut', and shares the root with close. In psychology, closure is the mind 'closing' the gaps to make a whole image, which is why we see a full circle even when parts are missing.