Word.ws English Dictionary

closed captioning

closed captioning noun: 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.

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.

Forms of closed captioning

alternative formclose captioning

Origin of closed captioning

"Closed" originally indicated that such captions were by default not visible until activated (opened) by the viewer turning them on, in contrast to open captions which are embedded in the video itself, visible to all.

Words formed from closed captioning

Questions about closed captioning

What does closed captioning mean?
Closed captioning means 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.
What part of speech is closed captioning?
Closed captioning is a noun.

Words near closed captioning in the dictionary

  1. closed book
  2. closed books
  3. closed campus
  4. closed campuses
  5. closed caption
  6. closed captioning
  7. closed captions
  8. closed casket
  9. closed circuit
  10. closed circuits
  11. closed circulatory system

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.

Last updated:

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