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# cue

«cue» in Mova's school dictionary: **A signal, word or action that tells someone it is time to…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a cue, cues); verb (cue, cues, cued, cueing/cuing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A signal, word or action that tells someone it is time to do something, especially an actor to speak or come on stage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#m1)

2) A hint that helps you understand or remember something: «context cues», «picture cues». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#m2)

3) A long thin stick used to hit the ball in snooker, pool and billiards. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#m3)

4) (verb) To give someone a signal to start: «Cue the music!» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#m4)

5) (verb) To get a song or video ready at the right point to play. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In school plays, actors wait for their cue. In reading lessons teachers talk about «picture cues» and «context cues» to work out a hard word. In everyday talk «on cue» means at exactly the right moment, and «take your cue from someone» means copy what they do. Phrases: «on cue», «right on cue», «miss your cue», «take a cue from», «cue the music», «pool cue».

### examples

- When the bell rang, that was our cue to line up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x1)
- The actor missed his cue and came on late. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x2)
- Right on cue, the rain started as we left. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x3)
- Use the picture cues to guess the word. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x4)
- He chalked the end of his cue before taking the shot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x5)
- Cue the music! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x6)
- Take your cue from the teacher and stay calm in the fire drill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x7)
- She cued up her favourite song. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/#x8)

### note

Homophone: «queue» (a line of people) sounds exactly the same — «wait in the queue», but «wait for your cue». «Cue» is also the name of the letter Q sound. Past: «cued»; -ing: «cueing» or «cuing».

### In the corpora

- [Cue cards hold key words only, so you can look up often.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/48-spoken-language-presenting-and-show-and-tell/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «cue» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/cue/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.