Cement

How to spell cement

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cement

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cement mean?

1. nounA grey powder that hardens after mixing with water and is used to bind sand and gravel into concrete or mortar.
2. verbTo fix something firmly in place, or to make a relationship, agreement, or position much stronger and more permanent.

Cement in a sentence

• noun

  The builders ordered another bag of cement for the patio.

• verb

  The signed contract helped cement the partnership between the two firms.

• noun

  Wet cement was spread between the bricks before the wall set.

• verb

  A shared sense of humour can cement a lasting friendship.

Where does cement come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Cement comes from the Latin caementum, which originally meant rough chips of stone or rubble cut from a quarry rather than the binding paste we picture today. That noun was formed from the verb caedere, meaning 'to cut' or 'to hew', so the earliest sense was about quarried fragments used in building work. The word travelled into English in the early 1300s through Old French ciment, and the meaning gradually shifted from the broken stone itself to the mortar or paste that holds stonework together. From there it grew its familiar figurative use, as when something cements a friendship or a reputation, binding things as firmly as masonry. The single s, single m spelling can mislead writers who expect a doubled consonant, but the Latin caementum had only one m, and that history explains the modern shape.

How the word is built

• cement (from Latin caementum: rough quarried stone)