Cutlass

This article is about the sword. For other uses see at the bottom of this page.

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A cutlass is a sword with a curved blade sharpened on the convex side. The cutlass was a sailor's weapon of choice. This curved bladed sword was also used by many foot solders and Mamelukes. Its curve gives it an upper hand in slicing. The cutlass is the sword usually portrayed in films about pirates.

A cutlass is as often an agricultural implement and tool, as a weapon (cf. machete, to which the same comment applies), being used commonly in rain forest and sugar cane areas, such as the Caribbean and Central America.

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Secondary meanings

"Cutlass" is also the name for:

• a kind of tropical fish.
• a car built by Oldsmobile.
• a submarine of the US Navy: The USS Cutlass (SS-478) was built during World War II and later used by the Republic of China (on Taiwan). It was named after the fish.
• a type of light civilian single-engined aircraft: the Cessna Cutlass.
• a type of carrier-based aircraft flown by the US Navy: the Vought F7U Cutlass.

The acronym CUTLASS stands for the Co-operative UK Twin Located Auroral Sounding System, a research facility using radar to study the ionosphere. See the CUTLASS home page.