Cup

How to spell cup

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cup

What does cup mean?

1. nounA small open container, usually with a handle, used for drinking hot or cold liquids.
2. verbTo form the hands into a curved, hollow shape, often to hold or scoop something.

Cup in a sentence

• noun

  She poured the tea into a chipped cup from the back of the shelf.

• verb

  She would cup her hands under the tap to catch the cold water.

• noun

  He left a half-finished cup of coffee on the kitchen counter.

• verb

  He tried to cup the small bird gently before it flew off.

Where does cup come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word cup descends from the Old English cuppe, which English speakers had taken in very early from the Late Latin cuppa, meaning a tub or drinking vessel. That Latin form is itself a variant of cupa, which named a barrel, cask, or tub for storing liquids. Over the centuries the meaning narrowed from a general container down to the small open vessel we drink from today, and it later picked up the sporting sense of a trophy because such prizes were traditionally shaped like a goblet. The same Latin root also gave rise to the related words cupola (a small dome shaped like an upturned cup) and even cupboard. The spelling has stayed reassuringly simple and phonetic, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to trip anyone up.

How the word is built

• cup (single root, from Old English cuppe, ultimately Latin cuppa: a drinking vessel)