Enclosure

How to spell enclosure

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce enclosure

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does enclosure mean?

1. nounAn area of land or space that is fenced, walled, or otherwise closed off.
2. nounSomething placed inside an envelope or package along with a letter.

Enclosure in a sentence

• The lions paced restlessly inside the zoo enclosure.

• Please return the signed contract along with the enclosure provided.

• A tall hedge marks the boundary of the garden enclosure.

• The cheque was sent as an enclosure with the invoice.

Where does enclosure come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin verb claudere, meaning 'to shut' or 'to close', which gave Old French the verb enclore, 'to shut in' or 'to fence around'. English took the verb 'enclose' in the late 1300s and then formed the noun 'enclosure' by adding the suffix -ure, which builds nouns naming a result or an act, much as 'pressure' grows from 'press'. By the 1500s the word had a sharp practical meaning in Britain, where the famous 'enclosure' movement saw open common fields fenced off into private holdings, a development that reshaped the countryside. The same claudere root quietly survives in a whole family of relatives, including 'closet', 'conclude', and 'exclude', all carrying the idea of shutting. The spelling trap lives in the ending: a single s pronounced like a soft 'zh', and the -ure that learners sometimes want to spell -ier or -our.

How the word is built

• en- (to put in or make)
• clos (from Latin claudere, to shut or close)
• -ure (noun suffix denoting a result or process)