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cute

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The definition of cute is something that is little, or pretty and clever.

(adjective)

A playful kitten is an example of something cute.
An example of someone cute is a little girl in her dress-up clothes.

See cute in Webster's New World College Dictionary

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adjective cuter, cutest

clever; sharp; shrewd
pretty or attractive, esp. in a lively, wholesome, or dainty way
straining for effect; artificial

Origin: aphetic < acute

Related Forms:

cutely adverb
cuteness noun

See cute in American Heritage Dictionary 4

cute

adjective cuter cut·er, cutest cut·est

Delightfully pretty or dainty.
Obviously contrived to charm; precious: “[He] mugs so ferociously he kills the humor—it's an insufferably cute performance” (David Ansen).
Shrewd; clever.

Origin: Short for acute.

Related Forms:

cutely cuteˈly adverb

cuteness cuteˈness noun

Word History: Cute is a good example of how a shortened form of a word can take on a life of its own, developing a sense that dissociates it from the longer word from which it was derived. Cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense “keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd.” In this sense cute is first recorded in a dictionary published in 1731. Probably cute came to be used as a term of approbation for things demonstrating acuteness, and so it went on to develop its own sense of “pretty, fetching,” first recorded with reference to “gals” in 1838.

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