What does cutout mean?
A cutout is fundamentally something that has been cut out of a larger surface: most familiarly, a shape snipped from paper or card for decoration, craft projects, or classroom displays. The word also covers larger-scale figures, such as the life-size cardboard standees of celebrities and characters displayed in shop windows or at events. Beyond the visual arts, 'cutout' has a firmly established technical meaning: an automatic device that interrupts an electric current, serving as a safety mechanism in circuits, motors, and household wiring. In journalism and informal speech, a cutout can further denote an intermediary who relays messages or money between parties so that they never deal with each other directly — a term especially associated with espionage and clandestine transactions. American style writes the word as one unhyphenated unit, while British usage often hyphenates it as 'cut-out'. Its range from kindergarten scissors work to electrical engineering makes it a surprisingly versatile everyday noun.
A shape or figure cut from paper, card, or similar material, used for decoration, craft, or display; by extension, a life-size standee or photographic representation of a person or object.
"He stood next to a life-size cutout of the film star at the premiere."
Often modified by material: paper cutout, cardboard cutout.
An automatic device that breaks an electrical circuit when current exceeds a safe level or when a fault is detected.
"The washing machine's thermal cutout tripped after the drum overheated."
Chiefly technical; related terms include circuit breaker and fuse, though these are not identical devices.
(Informal) An intermediary who conveys information or goods between two parties without them meeting directly, especially in espionage or illegal trade.
"The spy used a series of cutouts to keep his identity hidden from the network."
Informal register; frequent in journalism about intelligence operations.
Regular plural; the hyphenated variant 'cut-outs' appears mainly in older British text.
"She arranged the paper cutouts along the top of the bulletin board."
The same little word describes a child's paper snowflake and the fuse that stops your house wiring from catching fire — one of English's odder overlaps of arts-and-crafts and electrical engineering.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cutout
Cutout derives from the verb phrase 'to cut out', formed within English from the verb 'cut', which entered Middle English around the thirteenth century, likely of Scandinavian origin (compare Old Norse 'kuta'). The noun arose by conversion from the phrasal verb, following a pattern common in English where verb-particle combinations become nouns. It is therefore a native English formation rather than a borrowing, and its development parallels that of other phrasal-verb nouns like 'makeover' and 'setup'.
Related word forms
How cutout is actually used
In American English, 'cutout' is typically written as a single unhyphenated word; British publications often use the hyphenated form 'cut-out'. The electrical sense is common in engineering and technical contexts, while the intermediary sense is informal and often appears in journalism about espionage or illicit dealings.
Easily confused with cutout
'Cut-out' is simply a hyphenated British spelling variant of 'cutout'; both refer to the same thing, though US style favors the unhyphenated form.
A shutdown is a deliberate cessation of operation, whereas a cutout is specifically an automatic safety interruption of an electrical circuit.