gâteau
French, noun/ɡa.to/
gâteau is spelled G-Â-T-E-A-U (6 letters) and appears 17 times per million words in written French, the 4,479th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Gâteau is a French masculine noun meaning “a sponge cake, i.e. a cake made with a chemical leavening agent (e.g. baking powder), making it light and airy (as opposed to a denser…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Pâtisserie à base de pâte obtenue en mélangeant généralement de la farine, des œufs, du beurre et du sucre”.
What does gâteau mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinea sponge cake, i.e. a cake made with a chemical leavening agent (e.g. baking powder), making it light and airy (as opposed to a denser torte)
- 2
masculinea cookie
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Pâtisserie à base de pâte obtenue en mélangeant généralement de la farine, des œufs, du beurre et du sucre. 2. Sorte de pâtisserie salée. 3. Quelque affaire utile, avantageuse. 4. Profit.
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 gâteau
- gâteaux plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce gâteau?
- /ɡa.to/
- /ɡɑ.to/
- \ɡa.to\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to gâteau
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is gâteau in French?
gâteau appears 17 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).