cabestan
French, noun/ka.bɛs.tɑ̃/
cabestan is spelled C-A-B-E-S-T-A-N (8 letters) and appears about once in every 5 million words in written French, the 76,422nd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cabestan is a French masculine noun meaning “capstan (vertical cleated drum or cylinder)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Système tournant dont l’axe vertical permet, en enroulant un câble, de déployer une force très importante”.
What does cabestan mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinecapstan (vertical cleated drum or cylinder)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Système tournant dont l’axe vertical permet, en enroulant un câble, de déployer une force très importante. 2. Treuil destiné à étarquer les drisses ou à border les écoutes de voile.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of cabestan
- cabestans plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce cabestan?
- /ka.bɛs.tɑ̃/
- \ka.bɛs.tɑ̃\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to cabestan
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is cabestan in French?
cabestan appears about once in every 5 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).