cup of tea

/ˈkʌp əv ˈtiː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

informal/ˌkʌp ə ˈtiː/

cup of tea noun: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cup, tea. A cup or mug with tea in it.

Noun

cup of tea (plural cups of tea)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cup, tea. A cup or mug with tea in it.
- Would you be a dear and get me a cup of tea, please?
- In the heady days of 1970, the national average wage was about £6,200 in today's money, but a cup of BR tea was within everyone's reach at 9d (2020 value: 55p) until it suddenly went up to 11p (2020: 70p). (The 2020 price would relate to 11d, not 11p; decimalisation took place in 1971.)2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was a risk”, in RAIL, pages 65–66
Synonyms:

cuppa, brew
(idiomatic, singular, singular-only) An activity or domain in which someone is interested or skilled in; one's personal preference.

Synonyms:

dish, jam, affinity, bag, bent, love, cup of coffee, cup of joe, fancy, liking
three

14 more synonymsFewer synonyms

plural	cups of tea

What does cup of tea mean?: Cup of tea means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cup, tea. A cup or mug with tea in it.
What is cup of tea in Hindi?: Cup of tea in Hindi is चाय (cāy). See Cup of tea meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cup of tea?: Cup of tea is a noun.
How do you pronounce cup of tea?: Cup of tea is pronounced /ˈkʌp əv ˈtiː/.
What is the plural of cup of tea?: The plural of cup of tea is cups of tea.

Adapted from Wiktionary: cup of tea (page history and authors); चाय (Hindi) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cup of tea.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cup of tea.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cup_of_tea. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.