What does "closed-back" mean?

Of headphones: completely covering the ear, so that there is no airflow through the wearer's ears.

What is a synonym for "closed-back"?

Common synonyms include: close-back, close-ear, close-eared, closed-ear.

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Of headphones: completely covering the ear, so that there is no airflow through the wearer's ears. not-comparable
"Closed-back earphones with active noise canceling by manufacturers like Bose and Phiaton produce a nullifying frequency to block intrusive sounds."

"Closed-back earphones with active noise canceling by manufacturers like Bose and Phiaton produce a nullifying frequency to block intrusive sounds."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.