Definition of cute in English:

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cute

Pronunciation: /kjuːt/

adjective

1Attractive in a pretty or endearing way: she had a cute little nose
More example sentences
  • And I haven't had any luck attracting cute little kittens to the window.
  • Attractive subjects are cute animals, pretty women, nice landscapes, interesting portraits.
  • Her sweet voice and cute, large eyes attracted most people.
Synonyms
1.1North American informal Sexually attractive; good-looking: Ryan’s cute but he’s kinda young a cute guy
More example sentences
  • Benatar had a rough-hewn sexuality; John was coquettish and irksomely cute.
  • In addition to that, he's funny, cute, pretty sweet, and has a killer body.
  • This sophisticated giant oozes sex appeal as well as being cute and pretty, perfect for a woman like me.
2North American informal Clever or cunning, especially in a self-seeking or superficial way: she had a real cute idea the two brothers were cute enough to find a couple of rich women and marry them
More example sentences
  • The first time I heard about the Slow Food movement, recently arrived on our shores from its native Italy, I thought the whole idea sounded cute.
  • Once Slatkin stepped a bit on the pedal, it worked out very nicely and the trumpet call from the wings was at least a cute idea.
  • But, you know, my mom and my dad told me about this show, and I just thought it was such a cute idea.

Derivatives

cutely

Pronunciation: /ˈkjuːtli/
adverb
Example sentences
  • The two girls were fair, round-faced, bare-legged and smiling cutely, the boys (her youngest brother still a baby) darker and grinning.
  • Shia LaBeouf plays Stanley Yelnats, a boy with a cutely palindromic name sent to a bizarrely tough reformatory called Camp Green Lake, after being wrongly convicted of stealing a pair of sneakers.
  • Most Crikey readers would have seen the 7: 30 Report last night on what it so cutely called ‘targeted largesse’.

Origin

Early 18th century (in the sense 'clever, shrewd'): shortening of acute.

More
  • This started out in the 18th century as a shortened form of acute ( see accent) and originally meant ‘clever or shrewd’. The sense ‘attractive or pretty’ dates from late 19th-century America. Cutesy, meaning ‘cute in a sickly or sentimental way’, is also American, and was first recorded in 1914.

Words that rhyme with cute

acute, argute, astute, beaut, Beirut, boot, bruit, brut, brute, Bute, butte, Canute, cheroot, chute, commute, compute, confute, coot, depute, dilute, dispute, flute, galoot, hoot, impute, jute, loot, lute, minute, moot, newt, outshoot, permute, pollute, pursuit, recruit, refute, repute, route, salute, Salyut, scoot, shoot, Shute, sloot, snoot, subacute, suit, telecommute, Tonton Macoute, toot, transmute, undershoot, uproot, Ute, volute

For editors and proofreaders

Line breaks: cute

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