occlusion

[ uh-kloo-zhuhn ]

noun

1. the act of closing, blocking, or shutting something, or the state of being closed or blocked:

   Corrosion may cause both leakage and occlusion of the water supply pipes.

2. Dentistry. the fitting together of the teeth of the lower jaw with the corresponding teeth of the upper jaw when the jaws are closed.
3. Pathology. closure or blockage of a blood vessel:

   coronary occlusion.

4. Phonetics. momentary complete closure at some area in the vocal tract, causing stoppage of the flow of air and accumulation of pressure: many consonants in English, as /b/ and /k/, are articulated this way.
5. Meteorology.
   1. an occluded front.
   2. the formation of an occluded front.
6. Graphic Arts. an obstructed view, or occultation, of an object in three-dimensional space when line of sight is blocked by an intervening object:

   Augmented reality is only believable if rendered models respect occlusion and disappear behind real-world objects.

occlusion

/ əˈkluːsəl; əˈkluːʒən /

noun

1. the act or process of occluding or the state of being occluded
2. meteorol another term for occluded front
3. dentistry the normal position of the teeth when the jaws are closed
4. phonetics the complete closure of the vocal tract at some point, as in the closure prior to the articulation of a plosive

occlusion

/ ə-klo̅o̅′zhən /

1. An obstruction in a passageway, especially of the body.
2. The alignment of the upper and lower sets of teeth with each other.

Derived Forms

• occlusal, adjective

Other Words From

• oc·clu·sal [uh, -, kloo, -s, uh, l, -z, uh, l], adjective
• non·oc·clu·sion noun
• pre·oc·clu·sion noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of occlusion¹

First recorded in 1635–45; from Latin occlūs(us) (past participle of occlūdere “to close up, shut”) + -ion; occlude

Example Sentences

Her voice, dark, fulsome and cutting, communicated Woolf’s intellectual depth and her personal demons; there was the insight and occlusion of a novelist at the height of her powers hiding her suicidal ideations from others.

From New York Times

These unique cardiac metabolic and genetic features of the naked mole-rat heart led to enhanced energy reserves even during blood occlusion and return of blood flow after in vitro simulated heart attack.

From Science Daily

The problem mainly lies in properly aligning the semantic information extracted independently from the 2D and 3D datasets, which is hard due to issues such as imprecise calibration or occlusion.

From Science Daily

"Re-entry occurs mainly from delayed conduction in scarred heart tissues, usually after coronary artery occlusion during a heart attack, which can be corrected by enabling pacing in these regions," said Dr. Razavi, a practicing cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.

From Science Daily

The occlusion of small lung arteries is the major reason for the reduction in blood flow in patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

From Science Daily