Word.ws English Dictionary

close captioning

close captioning is the alternative form of closed captioning.

Meaning of closed captioning

Noun

closed captioning (uncountable)

  1. The transcription, either verbatim or in edited form, of the dialogue and sometimes sound effects of a program, displayed onscreen and synchronized with the program, most frequently used by the deaf and language learners. Closed captions are encoded invisibly, and displayed by a decoder.
    • ... the closed captioning said, "There were no survivors of flight 815." [Note from Season 3: turns out it was "We're the survivors of flight 815."]2015 September 18, James O'Ehley, Erin Willard, The Take2 Guide to Lost: Mandatory television generated a sweeping dialogue … and here it is., Take2 Publishing, →ISBN
  2. (formal) The analogue standard for this transcription, which analogue media like videotapes, laser discs, and cable television use, but also digital forms like satellite television and DVDs.

Questions about close captioning

What is close captioning the alternative form of?
Close captioning is the alternative form of closed captioning.

Words near close captioning in the dictionary

  1. close boroughs
  2. close but no cigar
  3. close by
  4. close call
  5. close calls
  6. close captioning
  7. close chair
  8. close chairs
  9. close combat
  10. close communion
  11. close down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close captioning (page history and authors); closed captioning (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “close captioning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/close_captioning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.