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:
A hotter rise of 0.3% of more, on the other hand, would seem to cement a rate hike.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
He removed levies on cement, road salt and some hospital products, while imposing 50% levies on other products including some all-terrain vehicles, boats and cheeses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
It is one of the world's largest single-train refineries and has become a major part of Dangote's business empire, which spans cement, sugar to fertiliser production.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
They found that nearly half of those declines were caused by the planet-heating gases released into the atmosphere by 122 of the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
But my feet don’t listen and my hands start itching and I feel like I’m trapped in cement.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
His landmark concert at Wembley further cements his status as a global star.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
This comes at a time when Beijing is polishing its image abroad as it cements its role as a global power.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
“His insistence on color saturation is something that really informs his work for ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and it’s really that movie that cements his reputation as one of the masters of scenic art.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
That measure cements the top three income brackets on taxpayers making more than $360,000, with a top rate of 13.3% on millionaires—and all of its revenue would have to go to education.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 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
Completing the extreme 100-mile course with just one minute 39 seconds to spare of the 60-hour cut-off, Jasmin Paris from Midlothian made history and cemented her name in the ultra-running history books.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
The speech would later become Berry’s 1977 manifesto “The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture,” which launched a sustainable-farming movement and cemented Berry’s authority on agrarian issues on the national stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
New polling has cemented populist leader Marine Le Pen’s front-runner status.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
But it was 1986’s “A Smoky Mountain Christmas,” Parton’s down-home festive fable, that cemented her as a seasonal favorite.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
The woman kisses the child good-bye and surrenders him to my mother; then she bolts off, running on the cemented stretches in the park.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
MPS was itself the subject of a bidding war this summer when BPM and Intesa Sanpaolo launched rival merger bids, cementing Italy’s place at the center of dealmaking in European banking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
On Friday, Microsoft’s stock notched its sixth straight session of gains — rising 6.7% over that multiday period, and cementing its longest winning streak since Oct.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
But when Chavez requested the inclusion of LGBTQ+ parents, he was denied — cementing his “no” vote on the resolution.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Most notably, Hunter agreed that he could not appeal the court’s ruling cementing his guilty verdict.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
The trapped worked perfectly, cementing TimeStar’s back to it.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
