What Do Guys Mean By "Cute"
Don’t conflate attraction and aesthetics. Don’t fall into the trap of measuring them on a linear scale from ugly to beautiful in which all complimentary terms are either interchangeable, or correspond to different levels of attraction. English is a fairly complex language, and that’s a good thing because complex symbols convey complex ideas more effectively.
Cute is generally employed to mean attractive or endearing so it’s actually more likely, not less, to suggest personal attraction than beautiful which merely implies that something is aesthetically pleasing. Buildings for example are often beautiful, but seldom cute.
Beware though.
Cute can also be employed ironically. Also like many words it is frequently used by people who don’t care what words actually mean. Ergo cute is popularly used to evoke the sense that something is ‘less than beautiful.’ (with the added suggestion of delicate or child-like qualities) i.e pretty, but without the suggestion of any endearing, or attractive quality. In this sense the word cute becomes a redundant synonym for the term pretty. The only clue here is tone, context and inflection. For example,
‘Wow, she’s cute.’
vs.
‘Ehh, I guess she’s sort of cute,’
You must also account for the existence of flattery. Because it is an actual thing.
