cursive

American  

[kur-siv] / ˈkɜr sɪv /

adjective

1. (of handwriting) in flowing strokes with the letters joined together.

2. Printing. in flowing strokes resembling handwriting.

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noun

• cursives
  plural

1. a cursive letter or character.

2. Printing. a style of typeface simulating handwriting.

cursive British  

/ ˈkɜːsɪv /

adjective

1. of or relating to handwriting in which letters are formed and joined in a rapid flowing style

2. printing of or relating to typefaces that resemble handwriting

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noun

1. a cursive letter or printing type

2. a manuscript written in cursive letters

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cursiveness
  noun
• noncursive
  adjective
• transcursive
  adjective
• cursively
  adverb
• noncursively
  adverb
• transcursively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cursives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cursive

1775–85; < Medieval Latin cursīvus flowing (said of penmanship), equivalent to Latin curs ( us ) (past participle of currere to run) + -īvus -ive

Explanation

Cursive is a style of writing in which all the letters in a word are connected. It's also known as script or longhand. When the third-grade students learned cursive writing, they were excited to find that they could write entire words without lifting their pencil from the paper. Cursive comes from the past participle of the Latin word currere, which means "to run." In cursive handwriting, the letters all run into one another and the hand runs across the page, never lifting between letters. Every time a document asks for your signature at the bottom of a document, you are meant to use this flowing cursive writing style.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cursive cursives

Who else sees “Instagzam”? Instagram unveiled its first brand refresh in a decade, swapping its classic cursive wordmark for a hybrid script that is drawing mixed reactions online.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Some of the detectives’ notes had been written in cursive, which she helped translate for her younger teammates.

From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026

Her legal team argued that the way Cathay Home has styled the word "Swift" in its branding closely resembled the singer's trademarked cursive signature.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026

She took a picture of the grimy hotel room where she stayed, capturing the swirling cursive on the sign for the dialysis center across the street in the background.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025

“Your silence will not protect you,” the Audre Lorde quote, is stenciled in cursive on the wall over the windows.

From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner

While Loi Che Chan does employ Chinese, she revives extravagantly illegible cursives as old as the eighth century.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 11, 2019

They worked obsessively, perfecting their lettering, their cursives, and their lines.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 10, 2015

As regards the cursives nearly the same must be said.

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

And further, on what intelligible principle is the consent of all the other uncials, and the whole mass of cursives, to be explained, if this verse of Scripture be indeed spurious?

From The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels Being the Sequel to The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by Edward Miller

For ἡμᾶς we find only B, 33, 68, 95, 96, 105, 137, and rather wonder than otherwise that the itacism is not met with in more cursives than six.

From A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II. by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener

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