cement
Americannoun
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cements
plural
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any of various calcined mixtures of clay and limestone, usually mixed with water and sand, gravel, etc., to form concrete, that are used as a building material.
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any of various soft, sticky substances that dry hard or stonelike, used especially for mending broken objects or for making things adhere.
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Petrography. the compact groundmass surrounding and binding together the fragments of clastic rocks.
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anything that binds or unites.
Time is the cement of friendship.
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Dentistry.
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a hardening, adhesive, plastic substance, used in the repair of teeth for anchoring fillings or inlays, for filling, or for fastening crowns.
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Informal. cementum.
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verb (used with object)
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cements,
present (3rd person singular)
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cemented,
past participle, past
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cementing
present participle
verb (used without object)
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cements,
present (3rd person singular)
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cemented,
past participle, past
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cementing
present participle
noun
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a fine grey powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay, used with water and sand to make mortar, or with water, sand, and aggregate, to make concrete
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a binder, glue, or adhesive
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something that unites or joins; bond
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dentistry any of various materials used in filling teeth
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mineral matter, such as silica and calcite, that binds together particles of rock, bones, etc, to form a solid mass of sedimentary rock
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another word for cementum
verb
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to reinforce or consolidate
once a friendship is cemented it will last for life
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to join, bind, or glue together with or as if with cement
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to coat or cover with cement
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cementsimple
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cementssimple
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have cementedperfect
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has cementedperfect
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am cementingprogressive
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are cementingprogressive
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is cementingprogressive
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have been cementingperfect progressive
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has been cementingperfect progressive
Past
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cementedsimple
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had cementedperfect
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was cementingprogressive
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were cementingprogressive
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had been cementingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cement
1250–1300; < Latin cēmentum, variant of caementum (singular of caementa unprocessed cuttings from the quarry, i.e., rough stone and chips) < *caed-mentom, equivalent to caed ( ere ) to cut + -mentum -ment; replacing Middle English cyment < Old French ciment < Latin, as above
Explanation
Cement is a material that's used to build very strong, hard surfaces and structures. Cement is an ingredient in both mortar, which holds bricks together, and concrete, with which dams and roads and buildings are constructed. Cement begins as a powder made of clay and limestone, and after it's mixed with water and, often, sand, it's used to strengthen and bind things — as the mixture dries, it becomes hard and solid. A version of cement has been around since the third century BCE, in Mesopotamia. The word comes from the Latin root cæmenta, "stone chips for making mortar," from caedere, "to cut or chop."
Vocabulary lists containing cement
Black and Gray
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Engineering - Introductory
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Civil Engineering
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He recently won three beautification awards for a Rancho Santa Fe home where he replaced foundation plants with boulders, gravel, cement pots and flameproof steel plant sculptures with internal lighting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Here we are, two decades on, watching her documentary further cement Sofia’s film as the modern classic it is.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
Swiss cement maker Holcim is being sued by residents of an Indonesian island being eroded by rising sea levels.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
Its three open-spandrel arches were made using Portland cement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The ability to communicate with other prisoners through the cement walls was the only thing that kept him sane.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
His landmark concert at Wembley further cements his status as a global star.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“The data cements the now-consensus view that the ECB will hold fire this month,” Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note to clients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
BNP Paribas analyst Moses Sutton wrote after the deal that it cements “Nextpower as the all-around way for investors to play AI-supported solar + storage growth.”
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
While Thinking Machines was already working with Nvidia chips to develop its models, the new partnership further cements the startup as a customer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
Epic in scope, violence, and imagination, Deathstorm is a new benchmark in the fantasy genre and cements forever G. M. Pennington’s status as the American Tolkien.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
Comments from Fed officials cemented expectations for another interest rate hike before the end of the year, though this month appears unlikely.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Herman, a German transplant who has been in L.A. since 1977, is an artist whose vividly rendered paintings cemented him as one of the West Coast leaders of the ’80s neo-Expressionist movement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Venom began in Newcastle in 1978, formed by musicians from three other bands, but it was their second album - Black Metal released in 1982 - that cemented their status in the rock world.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
He cemented a reputation among friends and fellow investors as someone who would voice his concerns often and openly, including with those who didn’t share them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
They exchanged members, hunted together, traded rare luxuries, cemented political alliances and celebrated religious festivals.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
But the film merely gestures to its own unfortunate place in history, without ever cementing it as a tragedy.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
Third-party agents still lack access to data on Amazon’s inventory, further cementing the e-commerce giant’s edge.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
The Houthis have been cementing their hold on the Bab Al-Mandab strait, a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia that has been used as an alternative to Hormuz.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
City defender Nico O'Reilly succeeds Morgan Rogers as men's young player of the year, with the versatile 21-year-old cementing his place in the starting XI.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
There were sheets of ice binding the aspens to earth and cementing the tops of the hemlocks in arches.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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