Word.ws English Dictionary

come out of the closet

come out of the closet verb: to disclose to others about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity, where previously this had been kept secret.

Verb

come out of the closet (third-person singular simple present comes out of the closet, present participle coming out of the closet, simple past came out of the closet, past participle come out of the closet)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To disclose to others about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity, where previously this had been kept secret.
    • He came out of the closet as gay to his friends.
    • Now, we're coming out / Out of our closets / Out on the streets / Yeah, we're coming out1972, Lou Reed, “Make Up”, in Transformer
    Synonyms:
    come out
    Antonyms:
    remain in the closet, woodwork
  2. (humorous, idiomatic, informal, intransitive, sometimes) To self-disclose about one's minority or disapproved-of identity, belief, preference, etc.
    • She finally came out of the closet to her religious family regarding her atheism.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see come, out, of, the, closet.

come out of the closet meaning in Bengali, Tagalog and Indonesian

come out of the closet in Bengali

নিজের সংখ্যালঘু, অননুমোদিত পরিচয়, বিশ্বাস

come out of the closet in Tagalog

to self-disclose about one's identity
lumadlad

come out of the closet in Indonesian

to self-disclose about one's identity
melela

Synonyms of come out of the closet

Antonyms

Forms of come out of the closet

third-person singular presentcomes out of the closet
present participlecoming out of the closet
pastcame out of the closet
past participlecome out of the closet

Words formed from come out of the closet

Questions about come out of the closet

What does come out of the closet mean?
Come out of the closet means to disclose to others about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity, where previously this had been kept secret.
What is come out of the closet in Bengali?
Come out of the closet in Bengali is নিজের সংখ্যালঘু, অননুমোদিত পরিচয়, বিশ্বাস. See Come out of the closet meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is come out of the closet?
Come out of the closet is a verb.
What is the past tense of come out of the closet?
The past tense of come out of the closet is came out of the closet.

Words near come out of the closet in the dictionary

  1. come out
  2. come out in
  3. come out in the wash
  4. come out of one's shell
  5. come out of the broom closet
  6. come out of the closet
  7. come out of the woodwork
  8. come out on top
  9. come out smelling like a rose
  10. come out smelling of roses
  11. come out swinging

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come out of the closet (page history and authors); come out of the closet (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-come out of the closet.ogg.

Cite this entry: “come out of the closet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/come_out_of_the_closet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.