close captioning

A form of closed captioning — 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.

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Meanings

nounclose captioning (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of closed captioning.

    D/HoH people require close captioning and assistive technologies to access electronic and audio-visual information, including news and current events.

    2018, Bobbie Bushman, “Serving Underserved Populations: Implications from a Model of Successful Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Public Libraries”, in The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, volume 2, number 3
    2 more examples

    the prison did not have basic assistive devices, including a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), close captioning devices, and visual alarms and signals.

    1992 March-April, Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter, volume 16, number 2

    Additionally, in a research-film, faces being blurred can ensure confidentiality, voices can be changed, and subtitles or close captioning can be used to disguise the identity of an informant who wants to be anonymous.

    2016 December, April Karen Baptiste, “Can a Research Film Be Considered a Stand-Alone Academic Publication? An Assessment of the Film ‘Climate Change, Voices of the Vulnerable: The Fishers’ Plight.’”, in Area 48, number 4
Cite this entry
APA

close captioning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/close%20captioning

MLA

“close captioning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/close%20captioning. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “close captioning,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/close%20captioning.

Source: close captioning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.