Cement Meaning
/səˈmɛnt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA powdered substance produced by firing (calcining) calcium carbonate (limestone) and clay that develops strong cohesive properties when mixed with water. The main ingredient of concrete.
nounThe paste-like substance resulting from mixing such a powder with water, or the rock-like substance that forms when it dries.
Sentence Examples
A house is built on top of a solid foundation of cement.
The cement will set in a couple of hours.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers mixed sand and water with ____ to create a sturdy foundation for the bridge.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The workers used ____ to build the base of the new house in town.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English syment, cyment, from Old French ciment, from Latin caementum (“quarry stone; stone chips for making mortar”), from caedō (“to cut, hew”). Doublet of cementum.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"Indigenous bacteria, which naturally exist in specific environments, are being increasingly utilized in self-healing cement to promote calcite precipitation, a process that fills cracks and restores the material’s structural integrity [4,5]."
— 2024 October 10, Tiana Milović et al., “Enhancing Compressive Strength of Cement by Indigenous Individual and Co-Culture Bacillus Bacteria”, in Materials, volume 17, number 20, →DOI, archived from the original on 24 Feb 2025:
"For they have entertained cause enough
To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know."
— c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
"Olympic Games. — Besides the ordinary confederacies that join independent states together, a singular federal bond is remarkable in the Olympic games, which for many ages cemented the Grecian commonwealths by a joint tie of recreation and religious ritual."
— 1840, John Dunlop, The Universal Tendency to Association in Mankind. Analyzed and Illustrated, London: Houlston and Stoneman, page 103:
"But friendſhip is a calm and ſedate affection, conducted by reaſon and cemented by habit; ſpringing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations; without jealouſies or fears; and without thoſe feveriſh fits of heat and cold, which cauſe ſuch an agreeable torment in the amorous paſſion."
— 1758, David Hume, “Essay XXII. Of Polygamy and Divorces.”, in Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects, new edition, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand; and A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, at Edinburgh, →OCLC, page 115:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers mixed sand and water with ____ to create a sturdy foundation for the bridge.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The workers used ____ to build the base of the new house in town.