Meanings
- uncountableThe state or characteristic of being confined within actual or figurative boundaries.
I was thinking about the moment when that enclosedness, which can be protective, tips over into something menacing and unpleasant.
2006 Feb. 26, "Deeper Waters: Sarah Waters speaks to Anthony Quinn, The Age (Australia) (retrieved 27 Oct 2013)2 more examples
Maggie was always single, always withheld. . . . It was during this winter that Ursula suffered and enjoyed most keenly Maggie's fundamental sadness of enclosedness.
1915, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 13, in The RainbowWe must ask, first, whether our privacy — call it our distance or enclosedness or unknowability with respect to others — is elected or inevitable.
1984, Christopher E. G. Benfey, Emily Dickinson and the Problem of Others, →ISBN, page 63Synonyms: boundedness, finity, finitude, finiteness, limitedness
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe state or characteristic of being confined within actual or figurative boundaries.
Origin
Cite this entry
enclosedness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enclosedness
“enclosedness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enclosedness. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “enclosedness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/enclosedness.
Source: enclosedness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.