come out of the closet

English

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

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)

(intransitive, idiomatic) To tell others about one's homosexuality, bisexuality, transness, or any minority or disapproved-of belief, preference, etc., where previously this had been kept secret.
She finally came out of the closet to her religious family regarding her atheism.
- 1972, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Make Up”, in Transformer:
  Now, we're coming out / Out of our closets / Out on the streets / Yeah, we're coming out

Synonyms

come out, coming out

Derived terms

come out of the broom closet (“to come out as a pagan”)

Translations

to tell others about a secret belief or preference

Catalan: sortir de l'armari (ca)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 出櫃, 出柜 (ceot¹ gwai⁶)
Mandarin: 出櫃／出柜 (zh) (chūguì) (slang)
Danish: komme ud af skabet, springe ud
Dutch: uit de kast komen
Esperanto: elŝrankiĝi
Finnish: tulla ulos kaapista (fi)
French: sortir du placard (fr), faire son coming out
German: sich outen (de)
Greek: εκδηλώνομαι (el) (ekdilónomai)
Hungarian: előbújik (hu), coming outol
Indonesian: melela (id)
Irish: tar amach
Italian: dichiararsi (it), uscire allo scoperto
Japanese: カミングアウトする (kamingu-auto suru)
Norwegian: komme (no) ut (no) av (no) skapet
Nynorsk: koma ut av skapet
Polish: ujawniać się impf, ujawnić się (pl) pf
Portuguese: sair do armário
Russian: выходи́ть из подпо́лья impf (vyxodítʹ iz podpólʹja), вы́йти из подпо́лья pf (výjti iz podpólʹja)
Spanish: salir del clóset (Latin America), salir del armario (es) (mainly Spain), salir del placard (River Plate), salir del ropero
Swedish: komma ut ur garderoben (sv), komma ut (sv)
Turkish: açılmak (tr)

self-disclosure of sexual orientation

Belarusian: камінг-а́ўт m (kaminh-áŭt)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 出櫃／出柜 (zh) (chūguì)
Esperanto: elŝrankiĝi
Finnish: kaapista ulos tuleminen
French: coming out (fr) m, sortie du placard f
Georgian: ქამინგ აუთი (kaming auti)
German: Coming-out (de) n, Comingout (de) n
Hebrew: יָצָא מִן הָאֲרוֹן‎ (he) (yatsá min ha'arón)
Hungarian: előbújás, coming out
Japanese: カミングアウト (kamingu-auto)
Korean: 커밍아웃 (keoming'aut)
Polish: coming out (pl) m
Portuguese: saída do armário f
Russian: каминг-а́ут (ru) m (kaming-áut)
Spanish: salida del clóset f (Latin America), salida del armario f (mainly Spain), salida del placard f (River Plate)
Ukrainian: камінґ-а́ут m (kaming-áut)