cute
/kjuːt/adjective
cute is spelled C-U-T-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, cute means “Possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits or other properties that are mainly attributed to infants and small or cuddly animals…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in cute?
| Letters | 4: C-U-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 45 times per million words; the 2,253rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is cute?
Cute appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cute?
- /kjuːt/
Cute has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cute.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cute
- cuter comparative
- cutest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cute mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Possessing physical features, behaviors, personality traits or other properties that are mainly attributed to infants and small or cuddly animals; e.g. fair, dainty, round, and soft physical features, disproportionately large eyes and head, playfulness, fragility, helplessness, curiosity or shyness, innocence, affectionate behavior.
Our reaction to cute attributes is understood as the way nature ensures mammals care for their young.
- 2
Lovable, charming, attractive or pleasing, especially in a youthful, dainty, quaint or fun-spirited way.
Let's go to the mall and look for cute girls.
- 3
Sexually attractive or pleasing; gorgeous.
He's got such cute buns.
- 4
Affected or contrived to charm; mincingly clever; precious; cutesy.
The actor's performance was too cute for me. All that mugging to the audience killed the humor.
- 5
Mentally keen or discerning (See also acute)
Then Turpin being so very cute, He hid his money in his boot.
- 6
Evincing cleverness; surprising in its elegance or unconventionality (but of limited importance).
There's a cute alternative proof of this using lambda calculus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mignon , joli |
| German | goldig, lieb, niedlich, süß |
| Portuguese | fofo , bonitinho, giro |
| Spanish | gracioso, chulo, pituso, monono , mono |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cute come from?
Aphetic form of acute, originally meaning “keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd” (1731). Meaning transferred to “pretty, fetching” by US students (slang) c. 1834. Meaning drifted further to describe the pleasing attraction to features usually possessed by the young.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).