cue
UK/kjuː/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kjʉw/
cue noun: the name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
Noun (1)
cue (plural cues)
- The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
- "My name is Quinn," said Quinn. "Cue-you-eye-en-en."2008, John Clark Pratt, Vietnam Voices: Perspectives on the War Years, 1941–1975, page 315
- A small portion of bread or beer; the quantity bought with a farthing or half farthing and noted with a q (for Latin quadrāns (“farthing”)) in the buttery books.
Noun (2)
cue (plural cues)
- An action or event that is a signal for somebody to do something.
- This time Cudicini was left helpless when Natcho stepped up to expertly curl the ball into the top corner.
That was the cue for further pressure from the Russian side and it took further Cudicini saves to keep the score down.2011 November 3, Chris Bevan, “Rubin Kazan 1 - 0 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport
- This time Cudicini was left helpless when Natcho stepped up to expertly curl the ball into the top corner.
- The last words of a play actor's speech, serving as an intimation for the next actor to speak; any word or words which serve to remind an actor to speak or to do something; a catchword.
- When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
- A marker or signal that triggers something, such as the start of an audio recording.
- A hint or intimation.
- Give them [the servants] their cue to attend in two lines as he leaves the house.1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC
- Humour; temper of mind.
Verb (1)
cue (third-person singular simple present cues, present participle cueing or cuing, simple past and past participle cued)
- To give someone a cue signal.
- Cue the cameraman, and action!
- The episode also opens with an inspired bit of business for Homer, who blithely refuses to acquiesce to an elderly neighbor’s utterly reasonable request that he help make the process of selling her house easier by wearing pants when he gallivants about in front of windows, throw out his impressive...2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club
- To spark or provoke.
- These techniques can cue an open dialogue with your interviewer.
- The teenager, as beloved a full-back as any in these parts since Danny McGrain was tearing it up, cut in, shot and saw his attempt deflected in off Sterling's boot. Cue more pandemonium.2016 September 28, Tom English, “Celtic 3–3 Manchester City”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), BBC Sport
Noun (3)
cue (plural cues)
- A straight tapering stick used to hit the balls in various games.
- The tail; the end of a thing; especially, a tail-like twist of hair worn at the back of the head; a queue.
- Fat, short, radiant, General Chattesworth—in full, artillery uniform—was there, smiling, and making little speeches to the ladies, and bowing stiffly from his hips upward—his great cue playing all the time up and down his back, and sometimes so near the ground when he stood erect and threw back his...1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
Verb (2)
cue (third-person singular simple present cues, present participle cueing or cuing, simple past and past participle cued)
Proper noun capitalized: Cue
Cue (countable and uncountable, plural Cues)
- A surname.
- A small town and local government area (the Shire of Cue) in the Mid West region, Western Australia, named after Tom Cue.
Noun (4) capitalized: CUE
CUE
- Acronym of clear and unmistakable error, a legal standard for appeal of a decision by a Board of Veterans Appeals in the United States.
cue meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati
cue in Hindi
- name of the letter Q, q
- क्यू kyū
cue in Marathi
- name of the letter Q, q
- क्यू kyū
cue in Bengali
- name of the letter Q, q
- কিউ kiu
cue in Gujarati
- કયૂ
More languagesFewer languages
- cue in Tagalog
- kyu, balap
- cue in Arabic
- كُو kū
- cue in Malay
- kiu
- cue in Indonesian
- ki
- cue in Persian
- علامت دادن
- cue in Thai
- คิว kiu
- cue in Vietnamese
- cu, quy, quờ, cơ
Examples of cue in a sentence
- Higgins can't quite reach the white with his cue, so he'll be using the rest.
- Embarrassingly, he scratched on the break, popping the cue completely off the table.
- He isn't even on-camera talent: he just holds the cue cards.
Synonyms of cue
Forms of cue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cues |
| alternative form | kue |
| alternative form | kew |
| alternative form | que |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cues |
| present participle | cueing |
| present participle | cuing |
| past participle | cued |
| past | cued |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Cues |
Origin of cue
From Middle English cu (used for half a farthing, from q as an abbreviation for Latin quadrāns (“quarter of an as”)), from Latin cū, kū. Compare French ku.
From earlier qu, abbreviation of Latin quandō (“when”), marked on actor's play copy where they were to begin.
Variant of queue, from French queue (“tail”).
Words formed from cue
Phrases with cue
Words that rhyme with cue
Questions about cue
- What does cue mean?
- Cue means the name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
- What is cue in Hindi?
- Cue in Hindi is क्यू (kyū). See Cue meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cue?
- Cue can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cue?
- Cue is pronounced /kjuː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cue?
- The plural of cue is cues.
Words near cue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cue (page history and authors); Cue (page history and authors); CUE (page history and authors); cue (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-queue.ogg, en-au-queue.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.