cute

Meaning

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.
2. Lovable, charming, attractive or pleasing, especially in a youthful, dainty, quaint or fun-spirited way.
3. Sexually attractive or pleasing; gorgeous.
4. Affected or contrived to charm; mincingly clever; precious; cutesy.
5. Mentally keen or discerning (See also acute)
6. (especially) Evincing cleverness; surprising in its elegance or unconventionality (but of limited importance).

Synonyms

pretty

lovely

charming

adorable

sweet

darling

precious

nice

attractive

cunning

beautiful

clever

endearing

graceful

pleasing

sharp

ingenious

smart

good-looking

dinky

winsome

kewl

dear

comely

lovable

beloved

handsome

shrewd

gorgeous

gratifying

handy

hardheaded

hard-nosed

importunate

intelligent

keen-witted

knowing

lightsome

likable

nimble

parlous

pinta

pinto

pitiful

playful

politic

poor

prudent

sharp-witted

small

Translations

mignon

lindo

niedlich

carino

mono

hübsch

bonito

grazioso

nett

süß

joli

schattig

aardig

goldig

amabile

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kjuːt/

Etymology

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.