cute
Americanadjective
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cuter,
comparative
-
cutest
superlative
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attractive, especially in a dainty way; pleasingly pretty.
a cute child; a cute little apartment.
-
appealing and delightful; charming.
What a cute toy!
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affectedly or mincingly pretty or clever; precious.
The child has acquired some intolerably cute mannerisms.
-
mentally keen; clever; shrewd.
noun
idioms
adjective
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appealing or attractive, esp in a pretty way
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informal sexually attractive
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informal affecting cleverness or prettiness
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clever; shrewd
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of cute
First recorded in 1615–25; aphetic variant of acute
Explanation
The adjective cute describes something that’s attractive in a pleasing, nonthreatening way. Things that are small or young are often described as cute, like babies, puppies, or toy fire engines. Something that’s cute is easy to like. We usually use cute to describe how something looks, like your cute smile or your cute dimples, but you can use it for anything that’s endearing or pleasing, like the boy-gets-girl ending to a romantic comedy. Cute can also refer to something that’s overly clever and a little bit fake. Don’t be too cute when you fill out a college application — the person reading it might not think it’s so funny.
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:
Companies based around the San Francisco Bay Area, including OpenAI and Meta, have promoted AI assistants as friendly, cute helpers for tackling tedious tasks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
In other words, buying cute and approachable products can make people feel good.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
AI companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic are using cute, cartoonlike mascots to potentially make their technology feel less scary to skeptics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Dots, however, were pitched as brightly colored cute cartoons meant to function as digital assistants for people with busy lives.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Although rooting for cute puppies would have been a whole lot easier.
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
Time was ticking and I wasn’t getting any younger or cuter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
You might think this technology is being used to repair the genetic defect, but it is actually cuter than that.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2024
Nora Ephron couldn’t have written a cuter outing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2024
However, amid the photos of McCarthy looking completely exasperated, I tumbled down a much cuter rabbit hole this week.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2023
“Quieter, though. And cuter, but I didn’t even just say that, because I love my boyfriend.”
From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
I attended high school there and had the cutest boyfriend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
"But you definitely get fewer applications for black cats and, like, this guy —" Fairbanks held up the cutest gray kitten "— you know, just a, quote, 'plain tabby.'"
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2024
Decoy and Shohei with the cutest first pitch you've ever seen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2024
"The ocean is full of surprises, and this dynamical feature is one of the cutest you'll ever see," said Prof Mike Meredith from the British Antarctic Survey.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2024
“Not a cat, a kitten. And isn’t he the cutest? Just a sweet pile of fluff. He’s like a tiny cloud.”
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
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.
