meet-cute

noun

ˈmēt-ˌkyüt 

variants or less commonly meet cute

plural meet-cutes also meet cutes

: a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners (as in a movie)

It's a meet-cute where they fall immediately in love: her because he's handsome; him because she forgets a pen to write with.

—Mark Abraham

Rom-com tropes like the "meet-cute" are so tired that you can't just spoof them—you have to spoof the spoofs …

—Stephan Lee

… upper-middlebrow "meet cutes" such as in Nora Ephron's popular You've Got Mail …

—James Wolcott

meet cute intransitive verb

or less commonly meet-cute

met cute also met-cute; meeting cute also meeting-cute; meets cute also meets-cute

In a charmingly old-fashioned plot, they meet cute, and she thinks it's true love …

—David Hiltbrand

… a picture-perfect love story about a man who uses paper planes to track down the woman he "met cute" at the train station.

—Huma Qureshi

… leading two people on a chase through the streets of Paris until they meet-cute in front of the Eiffel Tower.

—Deb Amlen

Did you know?

Isn’t it cute how two words can be introduced to each other and become an inseparable pair soon after? Well, that’s exactly what happened when meet and cute got together in 1952. The duo was spotted in The New York Times Book Review in 1952 in reference to an unexpected rendezvous: “This may well be, in magazine parlance, the neatest meet-cute of the week—the story of a ghost-writer who falls in love with a ghost.” Today the word is used often to refer to such encounters in films and television series (especially rom-coms and sitcoms). Writers of meet-cutes often develop plots by creating situations in which characters clash in personality, or by creating embarrassing situations in which two eventual romantic partners will meet, or by creating a misunderstanding between characters who will separate but become friends in the end.

Examples of meet-cute in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In a set up that borders on classic sitcom territory, both women meet-cute with younger men at a Palmetto Group event celebrating yet another corporate takeover of Las Vegas. —Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 24 Apr. 2026

Just a few minutes after the clock strikes midnight (eastern time), Venus will slip into Gemini, and Uranus will soon follow, making this the last cosmic meet-cute between Venus and Uranus in this Earth sign. —Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 23 Apr. 2026

The collaboration between the Hollywood actor and the celebrated essayist sounds like its own meet-cute, and the origin story is almost as entertaining as the book promises to be. —Hanna Wickes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Mar. 2026

The actress once reflected on their meet-cute on the set of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in an interview with BBC Radio 4, per People. —Emma Banks, InStyle, 15 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1952, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for meet-cute

• acute
• aleut
• astute
• beetroot
• breadfruit
• cheroot
• commute
• compute
• confute
• dilute
• dispute
• elute

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Kids Definition

meet-cute

noun

ˈmēt-ˌkyüt 

: a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners (as in a movie)

meet cute verb