cute
Americanadjective
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attractive, especially in a dainty way; pleasingly pretty.
a cute child; a cute little apartment.
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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.
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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:
Like Moo Deng and Neil the Seal before him, he is the latest cute, distinctive and seemingly chaotic creature to be immortalised in amateur footage, sometimes cringeworthy brand posts, and even murals.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The lyrics are sardonic: “If I were a shopping center, I’d sure be embarrassed / I know I’d never get a date with some cute little building, like from Paris.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The last magician in the show even called my granddaughter up on stage to be a sort of assistant, and it was very cute.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
“It’s a cute little treat and it’s cheap.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
“I knew nobody could have. Look at how cute you were!”
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Time was ticking and I wasn’t getting any younger or cuter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
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
"It looks cuter than I expected," he said.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2022
I thought she was cute before, but she’s even cuter now.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
I attended high school there and had the cutest boyfriend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Lukas, another student, agrees and adds: "I used to be afraid of dogs, but she's the cutest thing ever."
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
And with her birthday now a full-blown event, it seems Moo-deng’s reign as Thailand’s cutest celebrity is just beginning.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2025
No matter the outcome on Oscar night, the contest for cutest animated short has been settled: It’s French writer-director Loïc Espuche’s chronicle of a kid’s first kiss, “Yuck!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2025
His laugh is deep and has sort of a hiccup at the end, but in the cutest way imaginable.
From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman
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.
