meet cute
/ˈmit ˌkjuːt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.56 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A situation in a film, television series, etc., in which a potential romantic couple meet for the first time in a way that is considered adorable, amusing, or cute.
Informal
noun
Any such situation occurring in real life between a pair of people who are not yet acquainted, romantically or otherwise.
Informal
verb
Of characters in a story or people in real life: to meet each other in an adorable, amusing, or cute way.
Informal; Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "If this is a distortion of reality, it is a knowingly utopian gesture, and the wit of such conceits lies in placing in tension the ideal with the real and so being more than a series of fancy ‘meet cutes’: […]"
- "The hunt for love saturates Western culture. […] Romantic comedies have characters discover one another serendipitously, called "meet-cutes." The lead clumsily spills a drink on his future love interest, setting off a chain of events to love. Meet-cutes affirm the idea that possibility is all around us: love can happen anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone."
- "In some respects, it might be too faithful to the genre it savages; as in many real rom-coms, the energy flags during the plot’s backstretch, and audiences may share the drifting interest of Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), who come to regret ever asking Joel and Molly to chronicle their meet-cute."
- "When Wade first crosses paths with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), the ass-kicking fellow “gunter” (or egg hunter) with whom he becomes infatuated, the pair’s meet cute is predicated on the swapping of favorite pop-culture quotes."
- "Café Pick Me Up was a cosy little place with a low pressed-metal ceiling, crammed full of tiny tables, with French cafe chairs and mellow lighting. If you were to write a romcom featuring a meet cute, you’d set it there."
- "A short meet-cute dialogue ensues, detailing exactly how many hours of interviews [Steven] Levitt had agreed to (two), and exactly how much of his time [Stephen] Dubner actually ended up taking (three days)."
Etymology
Accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), who had difficulty speaking English, to describe the encounter between the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmit ˌkjuːt/
- British English: /ˈmiːt ˌkjuːt/