Completely regular space

This article defines a property of topological space that is pivotal (viz important) among currently studied properties of topological spaces

In the T family (properties of topological spaces related to separation axioms), this is called: T3.5

This article is about a basic definition in topology.
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Definition

A topological space is termed completely regular if it satisfies the following equivalent conditions:

It is T1, and, given any point and any closed subset, there is a continuous function on the topological space that takes the value $0$ at the point and $1$ at the closed subset.
It is T1 and occurs as the underlying topological space of a uniform space.
It possesses a compactification: there is a compact Hausdorff space having a dense subspace (with the subspace topology) homeomorphic to it.
It is homeomorphic to a subspace (not necessarily dense) of a compact Hausdorff space.

Convention issues

Note that in some conventions, the $T_{1}$ assumption is not made. In this case, we call a space completely regular if, given any point and any closed set not containing it, there is a continuous function taking the value $0$ at the point and $1$ everywhere on the closed subset. This latter notion is a weaker notion of completely regular

Formalisms

In terms of the subspace operator

This property is obtained by applying the subspace operator to the property: compact Hausdorff space

Relation with other properties

Stronger properties

property	quick description	proof of implication	proof of strictness (reverse implication failure)	intermediate notions
Normal space	disjoint closed subsets can be separated by a continuous function to $[0,1]$	normal implies completely regular	completely regular not implies normal	\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Locally compact Hausdorff space	Hausdorff and locally compact	locally compact Hausdorff implies completely regular	completely regular not implies locally compact Hausdorff	\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Underlying space of T0 topological group	Occurs as the underlying topological space of a T0 topological group	Tychonoff space\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Metrizable space	topological space arising from a metric space	(via normal)	(via normal)	Monotonically normal space, Normal Hausdorff space, Paracompact Hausdorff space, Tychonoff space\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
CW-space	topological space arising from a CW-complex	(via normal)	(via normal)	Normal Hausdorff space, Paracompact Hausdorff space\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Polyhedron	geometric realization of a simplicial complex	(via normal)	(via normal)	Paracompact Hausdorff space\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO

Weaker properties

property	quick description	proof of implication	proof of strictness (reverse implication failure)	intermediate notions
Regular space (also called $T_{3}$ )	$T_{1}$ , and disjoint open subsets separating point and disjoint closed subset	completely regular implies regular	regular not implies completely regular	\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Urysohn space	continuous function to $[0,1]$ separating any two distinct points	completely regular implies Urysohn	Urysohn not implies completely regular	\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
Hausdorff space (also called $T_{2}$ )	distinct points can be separated by disjoint open subsets	(via regular)	(via regular)	\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO
T1 space	points are closed	by definition		\|FULL LIST, MORE INFO

Metaproperties

Hereditariness

This property of topological spaces is hereditary, or subspace-closed. In other words, any subspace (subset with the subspace topology) of a topological space with this property also has this property.
View other subspace-hereditary properties of topological spaces

Any subspace of a completely regular space is completely regular.

Products

This property of topological spaces is closed under taking arbitrary products
View all properties of topological spaces closed under products

An arbitrary product of completely regular spaces is completely regular.

References

Textbook references

Topology (2nd edition) by James R. Munkres^{More info}, Page 211, Chapter 4, Section 33 (formal definition)
Lecture Notes on Elementary Topology and Geometry (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) by I. M. Singer and J. A. Thorpe^{More info}, Page 37 (formal definition)