courbette
French, noun/kuʁ.bɛt/
courbette is spelled C-O-U-R-B-E-T-T-E (9 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written French, the 103,520th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Courbette is a French feminine noun meaning “bow (prostration)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Mouvement que le cheval fait en se cabrant et bondissant sur ses postérieurs”.
What does courbette mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininebow (prostration)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Mouvement que le cheval fait en se cabrant et bondissant sur ses postérieurs. 2. Action de se courber devant quelqu’un, attitude humble et obséquieuse envers quelqu’un, révérence. 3. Balancier de manœuvre des chaînes des soufflets de forge. 4. Action du corps de passer d'une courbe concave faciale à une courbe dorsale, ou inversement, nécessaire à la réalisation d'éléments acrobatiques.
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 courbette
- courbettes plural
- courbotte
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce courbette?
- /kuʁ.bɛt/
- \kuʁ.bɛt\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is courbette in French?
courbette appears about once in every 10 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).