Cusp

How to spell cusp

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cusp

What does cusp mean?

1. nounA point of transition between two states or stages, especially the moment just before a change happens.
2. nounA pointed projection on the chewing surface of a tooth, or one of the flaps that make up a heart valve.

Cusp in a sentence

• The company is on the cusp of a major expansion.

• The dentist noted that one cusp on the molar had begun to wear down.

• She felt she was on the cusp of a real breakthrough in her research.

• Each cusp of the heart valve closes to stop blood flowing backwards.

Where does cusp come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes directly from the Latin cuspis, which meant a point, a pointed end, or the sharp tip of a spear or lance. Roman writers used it for anything that tapered to a fine point, including the prongs of a fork and the corner of a sail. English adopted it in the 1500s, first in technical fields such as astronomy and astrology, where it named the pointed horn of a crescent moon and the boundary line dividing one sign of the zodiac from the next. From that idea of a boundary or pointed edge grew the common modern sense of standing at the very edge of one state and the beginning of another. The same Latin root still shows up in dentistry and anatomy, where a cusp is the raised point on a tooth or a flap of a heart valve. Because the word is short and ends in the crisp consonant cluster sp, its spelling rarely strays once it is learned.

How the word is built

• cusp (from Latin cuspis: a point or pointed end)