In addition to the usual properties of a topological structure, in a uniform space one formalizes the notions of relative closeness and closeness of points. In other words, ideas like ""x" is closer to "a" than "y" is to "b"" make sense in uniform spaces. By comparison, in a general topological space, given sets "A,B" it is meaningful to say that a point "x" is "arbitrarily close" to "A" (i.e., in the closure of "A"), or perhaps that "A" is a "smaller neighborhood" of "x" than "B", but notions of closeness of points and relative closeness are not described well by topological structure alone.