ENGLISH
REFERENCE

completion

n.
US //kəmˈpɫiʃən// UK //kəmplˈiːʃən// com·ple·tion
  1. 1 finishing a task (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate

    the act of finishing a task, project, or process.

    the act of finishing something or the state of being finished; often used in project management and academic contexts.

    Example

    The project is nearing completion after six months of hard work.

    Example

    The successful completion of the clinical trials paved the way for the drug's approval by the regulatory authorities.

    Usage

    Often follows the prepositions 'on' or 'upon'.

  2. 2 property sale (n.)
    C1 Advanced Formal Technical Law

    the final stage of buying a house or land when the ownership officially changes.

    the final stage of a property transaction where the legal title is transferred and the balance of the purchase price is paid.

    Example

    We should get the keys to our new home on the day of completion.

    Example

    The solicitor confirmed that completion had taken place at noon, allowing the buyers to take immediate possession of the premises.

    Usage

    Commonly used in the phrase 'date of completion'.

Show 3 more sensesShow fewer
  1. 3 American football pass (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate American English Sport

    a successful catch of a forward pass in American football.

    a forward pass that is successfully caught by an eligible receiver.

    Example

    The quarterback had twenty completions during the game.

    Example

    The veteran quarterback maintained a high completion percentage despite the aggressive defensive pressure from the opposing linebackers.

    • incompletion
  2. 4 computing (n.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Computing

    a feature that finishes a word or command for you as you type.

    a software feature that predicts and finishes the rest of a word or command being entered by the user.

    Example

    The code editor provides automatic completion for many programming languages.

    Example

    The command-line interface supports tab completion, which significantly reduces the time required to navigate complex directory structures.

    • autocomplete
  3. 5 mathematics (n.)
    C2 Proficiency Technical Math

    the act of adding points to a space so that every sequence has a limit.

    the process of making a metric space complete by adding points, or the resulting space itself.

    Example

    The real numbers can be seen as the completion of the rational numbers.

    Example

    In functional analysis, the completion of a normed vector space is a Banach space where every Cauchy sequence converges.

Origin

Borrowed from Latin completio, completionem, from complere (“to fill up, complete”); comparable to English complete + -ion.

© 2026 English Reference