cutlass
/ˈkʌtləs/noun, verb
cutlass is a noun meaning “A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-U-T-L-A-S-S and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of cutlass is cutlasses.
What does cutlass mean?
noun
- 1
A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship.
- 2
A similarly shaped tool; a machete.
verb
- 1
To cut back (vegetation) with a cutlass.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce cutlass?
- /ˈkʌtləs/
Cutlass has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cutlass.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cutlass
- cutlasses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- cutlassing participle, present
- cutlassed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is cutlass?
Cutlass appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,633rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Cutlass in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a short sword with a curved blade:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sabre d'abordage |
| German | Entermesser |
| Portuguese | alfanje, cutelo |
| Spanish | sable |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cutlass come from?
From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel (“knife”) + -as (augmentative suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).