cui bono

American

[kooi boh-noh, kwee boh-noh, kahy-] / kʊɪ ˈboʊ noʊ, ˈkwi ˈboʊ noʊ, ˈkaɪ- /

Latin.

for whose benefit?
for what use? of what good?

cui bono British

/ kwiː ˈbəʊnəʊ /

for whose benefit? for what purpose?

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The question you have to ask yourself is cui bono from the euro.

From Washington Post • Jul. 13, 2016

It’s a cui bono problem of the first order.

From Forbes • Nov. 25, 2014

The guard made the reasonable cui bono defense.

From New York Times • Sep. 13, 2011

Experts use the term "cui bono test" to know who could benefit from an act and be the perpetrator.

From Reuters • Sep. 4, 2011

While the community had been battling for civil and religious liberty, there had been a unifying, almost spiritualizing, influence in the sense of common injustice, and the question cui bono had been postponed.

From Children of the Ghetto A Study of a Peculiar People by Zangwill, Israel

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023