Closest

How to spell closest

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce closest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does closest mean?

1. adjectiveNearest in distance, time, or relationship; the most close.

Closest in a sentence

• The closest supermarket to my flat is a short walk away.

• She sat beside her closest friend at the reception.

Where does closest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the superlative form of the adjective 'close', meaning nearest in distance, time, or relationship. The base word travelled into English through Old French 'clos', the past participle of 'clore' meaning 'to shut', which itself came from the Latin verb 'claudere', literally 'to close' or 'to shut up'. The sense of physical nearness grew out of the idea of things being shut together with no gap between them, so a 'close' fit was a tight one. English then added its own native superlative ending '-est', the same suffix seen in 'fastest' and 'tallest', to mark the highest degree. A useful spelling note is that 'closest' keeps a single 's' before the ending and must not be confused with 'closet', the storage cupboard, which is an entirely separate word.

How the word is built

• clos- (from close: near)
• -est (superlative suffix)