With this research, the authors intend to investigate the effects of particle size and curing temperature on the properties of cement paste blended with iron tailings (IT). The research work found that the partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by iron tailings (IT) accelerated the hydration of cement in the initial stage, but low cumulative heat release was noticed after long curing. Both the yield stress and plastic viscosity of fresh cement paste blended with IT were decreased due to the IT replacement. The initial setting was found to be delayed by the addition of IT. Besides, the introduction of IT led to enhanced pore volume resulting in reduced UCS and the UCS decreased with the increase of IT particle size. On the other hand, the properties of cement in the presence of IT were found to be more temperature dependent. Increasing temperature accelerated the early-stage hydration of paste with IT more strongly than that of the control paste. Temperature rising was more favorable to the UCS development of samples with IT replacement. The grow rates of both yield stress and plastic viscosity increased due to the replacement of OPC by IT when the temperature rising. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.