cutlass
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cutlass", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cutlass" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "cutlass" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
cutlass is aEnglishnoun. It means: A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship. Pronounced /ˈkʌtləs/. Often confused with class.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cutlass |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌtləs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #47,554 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cutlass is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌtləs/. Corpus data places it at rank #47,554 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for cutlass, with forms such as "ccutlass", "ctulass", and "cultass". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "class", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel (“knife”) + -as (augmentative suffix). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is cutlass, spelled C-U-T-L-A-S-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship.
- 2A similarly shaped tool; a machete.
Etymology
From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel (“knife”) + -as (augmentative suffix).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccutlass,ctulass,cultass,cutalss,cutlas,cutllass,cutlsas,cuttlass,uctlass
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cutlass
Misspelling Variants of "cutlass"
Frequency rank: #47,554 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: