The gap between two things squeezed down to almost nothing — near enough to touch, with no room left in between.
From the word’s history
close comes from Latin claudere, 'to shut'. Things that are shut in together have no space between them — which is exactly how 'shut' turned into 'near'.
close 來自拉丁文 claudere「關上」（經古法文 clos）。這條線索很有用：東西一旦被關進同一個空間、圈在一起，中間自然就沒有距離了——「關起來」就這樣變成了「靠得很近」。知道這一點，後面幾個乍看不相干的用法（悶熱的房間、守口如瓶的人、捨不得花錢）就不再突兀，它們走的是「關上」那條原路，沒有轉進「近」。
Wiktionary / Online Etymology Dictionary：close ← Old French clos ← Latin clausus，claudere（關上）的過去分詞
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原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
closenessnoun/ˈkləʊs.nəs/
- 1
The state of being close (all senses).
- 2
The state of being friends.
- 3
The state of being mean or stingy.
- 4
The state of being secretive.
- 5
mathematicssciencesThe shortest path between two vertices in a graph.
- 6
archaicSolitude, seclusion.
- I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated / To closeness and the bettering of my mind [...]
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。