Closet vs. Wardrobe: What's the Difference?
Table of Contents
Main Difference
The main difference between Closet and Wardrobe is that the A closet is an enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging or storing clothes and Wardrobe is a storage cabinet.
Closet
A closet (especially in North American usage) is an enclosed space used for storage, particularly that of clothes. “Fitted closet” are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closets are often built under stairs, thereby using awkward space that would otherwise go unused. A “walk-in closet” is a typically a very small windowless room attached to a bedroom, used for clothes storage.
A piece of furniture such as a cabinet or chest of drawers serves the same function of storage, but is not a closet. A closet always has space for hanging, whereas a cupboard may consist only of shelves for folded garments. The word “wardrobe” can refer to a free-standing piece of furniture (also known as an armoire), but according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a wardrobe can also be a “large cupboard or cabinet for storing clothes or other linen”, including “built-in wardrobe, fitted wardrobe, walk-in wardrobe, etc.”
Wardrobe
A wardrobe is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that separate accommodation was provided for the apparel of the great. The name of wardrobe was then given to a room in which the wall-space was filled with closets and lockers, the drawer being a comparatively modern invention. From these cupboards and lockers the modern wardrobe, with its hanging spaces, sliding shelves and drawers, evolved slowly.
Throughout the chronological changes in the form of the enclosure, it more or less retained its preset function as a place to retain a king’s robe. The word has gained coinage over successive generations as an independent store for among others, preserving precious items for a ruler like gold, well highlighted in King Edward I’s times. It is also a simple patio where clothes are hung from metal bars or tucked inside utility racks running from up to down. The modern wardrobe differs in one respect from the historical one for its triple partitioning: there are two linear compartments on either side with shelves as well as a middle space made up of hanging pegs and drawers, the latter being a latter-day addition, besides a clothes’ press in the higher central space on level with a person’s chest.
Closet (noun)
Any private area, particularly bowers in the open air.
Closet (noun)
Any private or inner room, particularly:
Closet (noun)
A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
Closet (noun)
A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
Closet (noun)
A place of (usually fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
Closet (noun)
A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
Closet (noun)
A private cabinet, particularly:
Closet (noun)
The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch.
Closet (noun)
One used to store valuables.
Closet (noun)
One used to store curiosities.
Closet (noun)
One used to store food or other household supplies: a cupboard.
Closet (noun)
Any small room or side-room, particularly:
Closet (noun)
A secret or hiding place, particularly the hiding place in English idioms such as in the closet and skeleton in the closet.
“The closet can be a scary place for a gay teenager.”
“He’s so far in the closet, he can w|The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|see Narnia.”
Closet (noun)
One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.
Closet (noun)
An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
Closet (noun)
A sewer.
Closet (adjective)
Private.
Closet (adjective)
Secret, especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet; closeted.
“He’s a closet case.”
Closet (verb)
To shut away for private discussion.
“The ambassador has been closeted with the prime minister all afternoon. We’re all worried what will be announced when they exit.”
Closet (verb)
To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
Closet (verb)
To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.
Wardrobe (noun)
A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.
Wardrobe (noun)
A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes.
Wardrobe (noun)
The building housing such a department.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any closet used for storing anything.
Wardrobe (noun)
A room for keeping costumes and other property safe at a theater; a prop room.
Wardrobe (noun)
The department of a theater, movie studio, etc which purchases, keeps, and cares for costumes; its staff; its room(s) or building(s).
Wardrobe (noun)
A movable cupboard or cabinet designed for storing clothes, particularly as a large piece of bedroom furniture.
Wardrobe (noun)
A tall built-in cupboard or closet for storing clothes, often including a rail for coat-hangers, and usually located in a bedroom.
Wardrobe (noun)
Anything that similarly stores or houses something.
Wardrobe (noun)
The contents of a wardrobe: an individual’s entire collection of clothing.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any collection of clothing.
Wardrobe (noun)
Any collection of anything.
Wardrobe (noun)
A private chamber, particularly one used for sleeping or urinating and defecating.
Wardrobe (noun)
Badger feces, particularly used in tracking game.
Wardrobe (verb)
To act as a wardrobe department, to provide clothing or sets of clothes.
Closet (noun)
a tall cupboard or wardrobe with a door, used for storage
“he has a closet full of designer suits”
Closet (noun)
a small room, especially one used for storing things or for private study.
Closet (noun)
short for water closet
Closet (noun)
used to refer to a state of secrecy or concealment, especially about one’s homosexuality
“she tries to have a relationship with another woman while remaining in the closet”
“his brother’s decision to come out of the closet”
Closet (adjective)
secret; covert
“a closet smoker”
Closet (verb)
shut (someone) away, especially in private conference or study
“he returned home and closeted himself in his room”
“he was closeted with the king”
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