Table of Contents
Definition of Coming Out
(verb) The social, psychological, or political process and act of recognizing and acknowledging a sexual or gender identity within oneself and disclosing this to others.
Coming Out Pronunciation
Syllabification: com·ing out
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /kUHm-ing OUt/
- British English – /kUHm-ing OUt/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈkʌmɪŋ aʊt/
- British English – /ˈkʌmɪŋ aʊt/
Usage Notes
- A person may come out multiple times to different people and groups throughout a lifetime.
- Coming out is not always by choice, some people are outed.
- This term is typically used in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer/questioning, intersex (LGBTQI+) community but is not limited to it.
- Also called:
- come out
- come out of the closet
- out
Additional Information
- Sex and Gender Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “coming” and “out” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Archer, Bert. 2002. The End of Gay (And the Death of Heterosexuality). London: Fusion.
- Basow, Susan A. 1992. Gender: Stereotypes and Roles. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
- Dennis, Rutledge M., ed. 2005. Marginality, Power and Social structure: Issues in Race, Class, and Gender Analysis. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
- Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.
Related Terms
Works Consulted
Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Crooks, Robert, and Karla Baur. 2014. Our Sexuality. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).
Cite the Definition of Coming Out
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “coming out.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 9, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/coming-out/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
coming out. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/coming-out/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “coming out.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 9, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/coming-out/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“coming out.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/coming-out/>.