What is "telicity"

n. (context linguistics English) The property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense.

In linguistics, telicity (from the Greek τέλος, meaning "end" or "goal") is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense. A verb or verb phrase with this property is said to be telic, while a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being incomplete is said to be atelic.