Word.ws English Dictionary

cui bono

cui bono noun: the principle that the ultimate initiator of an action is likely the person who stands to gain from the action.

Noun

cui bono (uncountable)

  1. The principle that the ultimate initiator of an action is likely the person who stands to gain from the action.
    • If the principle of cui bono is applied, it is evident that the gainers were the party of the triumvirs, whose popularity would be increased by a belief being created that their opponents the Optimates were prepared to adopt extreme measures to get rid of them.1900, Evelyn Shuckburgh, Letters to Atticus, translation of original by Marcus Tullius Cicero
    Synonyms:
    cui prodest

Synonyms of cui bono

Origin of cui bono

From Cicero’s Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino, 84 & 86: Latin cui bonō fuisset (“to whom it would have benefited”), a so-called double dative construction.

Questions about cui bono

What does cui bono mean?
Cui bono means the principle that the ultimate initiator of an action is likely the person who stands to gain from the action.
What part of speech is cui bono?
Cui bono is a noun.

Words near cui bono in the dictionary

  1. Cuhnești
  2. cuhs
  3. Cuhureștii de Sus
  4. cuhve
  5. CUI
  6. cui bono
  7. cui prodest
  8. cui-ui
  9. Cuiabá
  10. cuica
  11. cuicas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cui bono (page history and authors). 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.

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