closet
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klahzuhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈklɑzət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
figuratively
A secret or hiding place, (particularly) the hiding place in English idioms such as in the closet and skeleton in the closet.
A small room (or recess) or cabinet used for storage space
A small private room for study or prayer
A private cabinet, (particularly)
usphilippines
One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.
adjective
Closeted, secret (especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet).
Denoting anything kept a secret or private.
verb
transitive
To shut away for private discussion.
transitive
To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
transitive
To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
Used this way, closet is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use closet
- “I need to organize my closet; it's quite a mess right now.”
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.