Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

closeted

/ˈklɒzɪtɪd/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.65 in modern English

Syllables: clos-et-ed
IPA: /ˈklɒzɪtɪd/

11

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

3

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.

Informal

adj

Not open about some aspect of one's identity, tendency, or fondness; secret.

verb

simple past and past participle of closet

adj

adj

sheltered; protected.

Example Sentences

"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,"
"1992, Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995, Part Two: Perestroika, Act One, Scene 4, p. 156, Belize: Get out your oven mitts. Guess who just checked in with the troubles? The Killer Queen Herself. New York's number one closeted queer."
"[…] the remaining quotations, chiefly from English poetry, interested me only slightly more. They were the elegiac favourites of a closeted Romantic."
"Now he feels a connection between his own closeted, esoteric sufferings and strivings and those of the poor urban working people all around him."
"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."
"He's spent all day closeted in his room."

Etymology

From closet (“state of concealment”) + -ed.

Word Breakdown

Suffix: closet

Usage

Informal

Inflected Forms

more closeted (comparative) most closeted (superlative)

Derived Forms

closetedly closetedness semicloseted uncloseted

Phrases

semi-closeted come out of the closet

Frequently Paired Words

come out of the closet

Synonyms

in the closet confined holed up

Rhymes With

posited

Questions

How do you pronounce closeted?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈklɒzɪtɪd/.
What does closeted mean?: Not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Where does closeted come from?: From closet (“state of concealment”) + -ed.

How to pronounce closeted

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “closeted”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈklɒzɪtɪd/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “closeted”.
Repeat and practice — Say “closeted” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.