Dictionary.com

Popular Searches

 Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

cute

American  
[kyoot] / kyut /

adjective

cuter, cutest

  1. attractive, especially in a dainty way; pleasingly pretty.

    a cute child; a cute little apartment.

  2. appealing and delightful; charming.

    What a cute toy!

  3. affectedly or mincingly pretty or clever; precious.

    The child has acquired some intolerably cute mannerisms.

  4. mentally keen; clever; shrewd.

noun

  1. Informal. the cutes, self-consciously cute mannerisms or appeal; affected coyness.

    The young actress has a bad case of the cutes.

idioms

  1. meet cute,

    1. (of a romantic couple) to meet for the first time in a charming or amusing way.

      In this type of movie the boy and girl always meet cute.

    2. Also meet-cute a situation or occasion when potential romantic partners meet for the first time in a charming or amusing way.

      a classic Hollywood meet cute; his meet-cute with Jane in the bookstore.
cute British  
/ kjuːt /

adjective

  1. appealing or attractive, esp in a pretty way

  2. informal sexually attractive

  3. informal affecting cleverness or prettiness

  4. clever; shrewd

"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

Other Word Forms

  • cutely adverb
  • cuteness noun

Etymology

Origin of cute

First recorded in 1615–25; aphetic variant of acute

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.

“No one wants to get cute ahead of another AI product reveal. Every new Anthropic headline has been treated as ‘incremental competition’ for existing software, whether that’s fair or not.

From Barron's

But he's cute so we'll let him get away with it.

From BBC

It’s almost cute that Ring, Flock and other tech companies pretend to be nothing but innocent bystanders in all this.

From Salon

Another visitor, who gave her name as Yoko, said: "He's so cute, so I had to come see him."

From Barron's

It contracted with boutique farmers for meats and produce under the tag line “Food With Integrity,” while sponsoring floats at Pride and Rose parades and commissioning cute commercials.

From Los Angeles Times

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.