Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use closeted in a sentence

13 example sentences · adjective

Closeted means not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Example: “He's spent all day closeted in his room.”

Examples of closeted by meaning

adjectiveNot open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.

  • Sally Gearhart, an ex-christian from Illinois who in the early seventies abandoned closeted lesbianism on Midwestern church college faculties for radical feminism in San Francisco,1979 December 15, Jil Clark, Sally Gearhart, “Spirituality vs. Politics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 8

adjectiveNot open about some aspect of one's identity, tendency, or fondness; secret.

  • They were the elegiac favourites of a closeted Romantic.1971, Cynthia Ozick, “The Pagan Rabbi”, in Collected Stories, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, published 2006, page 12
  • Now he feels a connection between his own closeted, esoteric sufferings and strivings and those of the poor urban working people all around him.1982, Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Penguin, published 1988, page 45
  • Sokolsky asks if he realizes that this is a walk-in clinic for closeted reality benders, and he's a disaster-response coordinator, not a therapist.2022 September 12, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-7000 - The Loser” (10:38 from the start), in The Exploring Series, retrieved 25 Mar...

adjectiveConfined.

  • He's spent all day closeted in his room.
  • Letterblair were closeted together after dinner.1920, Edith Wharton, chapter XI, in The Age of Innocence, New York: D. Appleton & Co., page 94
  • Now when the Foretopman found himself closeted there, as it were, in the cabin with the Captain and Claggart, he was surprised enough.1924, Herman Melville, chapter 17, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.

adjectiveSheltered; protected.

  • In my salubrious constituency of Cheltenham and in the leafy lanes of Gloucestershire, we are perhaps somewhat closeted from these unpleasant and harsh realities of the urban world of London, Plymouth, Birmingham and other major cities1985 January 25, Charles Irving, Hansard

More sentences with closeted

  • The ambassador has been closeted with the prime minister all afternoon. We're all worried what will be announced when they exit.From the entry closet
  • But this envy-streaked pleasure Alice closeted, and never let the girl see how she admired those ready-for-bed-in-the-street clothes.1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, page 55. From the entry closet
  • There are gays and lesbians within the Church who steadfastly refuse to leave it, be booted out, or be closeted within it.1983, David Townsend, “Staying On”, in The Body Politic. From the entry churchly
  • I promise you I thought the whole tale a Banbury story, but, upon my soul, what do I find but that fellow closeted with you!1955, Georgette Heyer, Bath Tangle, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 149. From the entry Banbury story of a cock and a bull
  • It's not that I'm proud of how I found out or that I think that closeted dildoes alone are enough to indict him for closeted queerhood.1995, John Preston, Michael Lowenthal, Friends and lovers. From the entry queerhood

Meaning of closeted

  1. adjective Not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
  2. adjective Not open about some aspect of one's identity, tendency, or fondness; secret.
  3. adjective Confined.

Full definition of closeted

Questions about closeted in a sentence

How do you use closeted in a sentence?
Closeted is used as an adjective. For example: “He's spent all day closeted in his room.”
What is a short sentence with closeted?
“Letterblair were closeted together after dinner.”
What does closeted mean?
Closeted means not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: closeted (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use closeted in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/closeted. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.