different between closeted vs alone

English

Etymology 1

closet (“state of concealment”) +? -ed

Adjective

closeted (comparative more closeted, superlative most closeted)

1. (informal) Not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
   • 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.

2. (by extension) Not open about some aspect of one's identity, tendency or fondness; secret.
   • 1971, Cynthia Ozick, "The Pagan Rabbi" in Collected Stories, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, p. 12,

     […] the remaining quotations, chiefly from English poetry, interested me only slightly more. They were the elegiac favourites of a closeted Romantic.

   • 1982, Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Penguin, 1988, p. 45,

     Now he feels a connection between his own closeted, esoteric sufferings and strivings and those of the poor urban working people all around him.

Synonyms

• (not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity): in the closet

Hyponyms

• (not open about one's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity): stealth

Translations

Etymology 2

See closet (verb)

Verb

closeted

1. simple past tense and past participle of closet

Adjective

closeted (not comparable)

1. Confined.

   He's spent all day closeted in his room.

   • 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, London: J.C. Nimmo, 1886, Chapter X, p. 68, [1]

     After they had been closeted up with the fortune-teller for some time, I knew by their looks, upon their returning, that they had been promised something great.

   • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Chapter XI, New York: D. Appleton & Co., p. 94, [2]

     It was a winter evening of transparent clearness, with an innocent young moon above the house-tops; and he wanted to fill his soul's lungs with the pure radiance, and not exchange a word with any one till he and Mr. Letterblair were closeted together after dinner.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 17, [3]

     Now when the Foretopman found himself closeted there, as it were, in the cabin with the Captain and Claggart, he was surprised enough.

2. Sheltered, protected
   • 1985, Charles Irving, Hansard, 25 January, 1985, [4]

     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 cities

Synonyms

• (confined): confined, holed up

English

Etymology

From Middle English allone, from earlier all oon (“alone”, literally “all one”), contracted from the Old English phrase eall ?n (“entirely alone, solitary, single”), equivalent to al- (“all”) +? one. Cognate with Scots alane (“alone”), Saterland Frisian alleene (“alone”), West Frisian allinne (“alone”), Dutch alleen (“alone”), Low German alleen (“alone”), German allein (“alone”), Danish alene (“alone”), Swedish allena (“alone”). More at all and one. Regarding the different phonological development of alone and one, see the note in one.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??l??n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??lo?n/, enPR: ?-l?n?
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /??lu?/
• Rhymes: -??n
• Hyphenation: a?lone

Adjective

alone (comparative more alone, superlative most alone)

1. By oneself, solitary.
   • 1611, King James Version, Genesis ii. 18

     It is not good that the man should be alone.

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     Alone on a wide, wide sea.

2. (predicatively, chiefly in the negative) Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, practices, etc.
3. (obsolete) Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
4. (obsolete) Mere; consisting of nothing further.
5. (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.

Derived terms

• alonely

Translations

Adverb

alone (not comparable)

1. By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.

   Synonyms: by one's lonesome, solitarily, solo; see also Thesaurus:solitarily

2. Without outside help.

   Synonyms: by oneself, by one's lonesome, singlehandedly; see also Thesaurus:by oneself

3. Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
   1. Not permitting anything further; exclusively.

      Synonyms: entirely, solely; see also Thesaurus:solely
   2. Not requiring anything further; merely
   3. (by extension) Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset.
      • “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons?! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

Usage notes

• Unlike most focusing adverbs, alone typically appears after a noun phrase.

  Only the teacher knew vs. The teacher alone knew

Derived terms

• leave alone
• let alone
• stand-alone

Translations

Anagrams

• Enola, Leano, Leona, NOAEL, anole

Italian

Etymology

From Latin halo.

Noun

alone m (plural aloni)

1. halo
2. glow

Anagrams

• anelo, anelò