meet-cute
Americannoun
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(in a movie or TV show) a chance meeting between two characters who do not know each other, starting a chain of events that typically leads to a romantic relationship.
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a similar incident in real life.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
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“The Bone People” follows the trajectory of a romantic comedy—a woman finds love in a meet-cute, loses that love and, after many travails, finds it again, even better than before.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
It is not quite the classic meet-cute, though cute enough, contusions aside: Stan is less concerned about his head than with the location of Cynthia’s bathroom.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
It also became a classic meet-cute because his gardening neighbor turned out to be Estrada’s best friend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025
After meeting at orientation — and bonding over the need to ignore the kid who insists on telling everyone he’s Amanda Knox’s cousin — Benny and Carmen fumble through a performed kind of meet-cute.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
We had the meet-cute, so I allowed us the full rom-com text treatment this weekend.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
They act out romantic meet-cutes and, yes, even attempt to cry on cue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
However, it's a promising sign that meet-cutes haven't entirely fallen out of favor with moviegoers.
From Reuters ● Apr. 3, 2022
Dating apps are an excellent option, as is asking your own friends for potential blind dates or slightly pre-engineered meet-cutes.
From Slate ● May 6, 2021
“Super Host” is set in a fairy tale of London, chock-a-block with meet-cutes and grocery store cashiers who offer to lend their copy of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to first-time customers.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2021
That opening number, about the irresistible charm of holiday movie meet-cutes, is an earworm.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2019
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.
