Cum Meaning
/kʌm/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
prepUsed in indicating a thing or person which has two or more roles, functions, or natures, or which has changed from one to another.
nounSemen.
Sentence Examples
You didn't have to cum so early.
Tatoeba: Don't cum here on Friday nights, kids.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The professor listed multiple awards ____ laude to highlight the student's achievements.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You didn't have to ____ so early.
Word Origin & History
Learned borrowing from Latin cum (“with”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He is too good an actor to need that sort of tomfoolery: the effect will be far better if he is a credible mining camp elder-cum-publican."
— 1926-1950, George Bernard Shaw, Collected Letters: 1926-1950, University of California/Viking, published 1985, page 31:
"One driver-cum-fireman-cum-fitter looks after the three locomotives, [...]."
— 1944 May and June, “Notes and News: The Snailbeach District Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 183:
"The banner shows a yellowed silhouette of a boy (possibly Calvin, of Calvin & Hobbes) urinating on an EU flag. Sites such as this show the full power of the Internet as a propaganda medium cum travel service cum organizing tool. Oh, and nightlife directory."
— 2001 Nov/Dec, David Sachs, “LET THEM EAT BITS”, in American Spectator, volume 34, number 8, page 78:
"Coffee shops-cum-meeting-spots dotted across the city are teeming (Equator, Blue Bottle and Saint Frank). Caffeine-fuelled, lactose-intolerant, macadamia milk latte-drinking young folk are journalling, manifesting, coding, ChatGPT-ing and pitching their ideas."
— 2023 February 5, Kathryn Parsons, “Boom times are back in San Francisco’s tech mecca”, in The Sunday Times, archived from the original on 25 Apr 2026:
"[Sam] Altman, the techno-optimist bent on commercialization, lost out to [Ilya] Sutskever, the Brutus cum mad scientist fearful that super-smart AI poses an existential risk to humanity."
— 2023 November 22, Derek Thompson, “The OpenAI Mess Is About One Big Thing”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 22 Nov 2023:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The professor listed multiple awards ____ laude to highlight the student's achievements.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You didn't have to ____ so early.