Meaning & use
cuppa
Last updated
UK/ˈkʌpə/
US/ˈkʌpə/
Meaning
nouncountable
A cup of tea, or sometimes another hot drink, offered or enjoyed casually.
Grammar: Countable and casual: a cuppa, a quick cuppa; usually means tea.
Patterns
- a cuppa with someone
- fancy a cuppa
Do you fancy a cuppa before you go?
She put the kettle on and made them each a cuppa.
We had a quick cuppa and a chat in the kitchen.
Word forms
| plural | cuppas |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a cuppa
- I'll make a cuppa while we wait.
- a nice cuppa
- There's nothing like a nice cuppa after a long walk.
- fancy a cuppa
- Fancy a cuppa, or shall we head out?
- a cuppa tea
- He sat down with a cuppa tea and the newspaper.
- a quick cuppa
- Come in for a quick cuppa.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cup of tea
- A cup of tea is the full form and fits any register, whereas cuppa sounds warm and casual.
- brew
- Brew is also informal British for a cup of tea, and is common in the north of England.
- char
- Char is older British slang for tea and is now rarer than cuppa.
Word family
Commonly confused: cuppa or cuppa joe?
cuppa vs cuppa joe
Cuppa joe is an American phrase meaning a cup of coffee, unlike plain cuppa which usually means tea.
Practice
A friend says, 'Fancy a cuppa?' What are they offering?
Choose one answer.
Cuppa is a casual British word for a cup of tea. It does not mean soup, cake or a walk.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cuppa”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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