MEANING
1. A signal or clue that prompts an action or helps someone understand what is happening.
2. A long, tapered stick used to strike a ball in billiards, pool, or snooker.
Use it for
showing a character noticing a subtle social signal; describing an actor’s prompt to speak or move; distinguishing an informative hint from a proven causeNames a signal guiding action or interpretation, including subtle social prompts, without treating every cue as a direct cause. Writing functions: Communication / Body Language.
Words that belong together
- a visual cue
- take a cue from someone
- cue an entrance
On the page
He took her closing the notebook as his cue to leave.
The pause cued the actor’s entrance, but the door remained shut.
She laid the cue across the table rather than answer him.
The cue shook once in his hand before he steadied it against the rail.
Word forms
- Base
- cue
- Past tense
- cued
- Past participle
- cued
- Present participle
- cueing / cuing
Usage notes
Noun and verb. Cues, cued, cued, cueing or cuing; future will cue. Plural cues. Do not confuse cue with queue. On cue is a usage frame, not a new idiom entry here. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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