come out of the closet
"come-out-of-the-closet" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“come out of the closet” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To disclose to others about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity, where previously this had been kept secret.
Corpus desk
Index EN-come-out-of-the-closet · come out of the closet · English
come out of the closet · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | come out of the closet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “come out of the closet” in English
Rare enough to double-check
come out of the closet is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for come out of the closet in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is come out of the closet, spelled C-O-M-E- -O-U-T- -O-F- -T-H-E- -C-L-O-S-E-T.
Definition
- 1To disclose to others about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity, where previously this had been kept secret.
- 2To self-disclose about one's minority or disapproved-of identity, belief, preference, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how come out of the closet appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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 out
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.