A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard.

The French word coutelas may be a convergent development from a Latin root, along with the Italian coltellaccio or cortelazo,[1] meaning "large knife".

Woodsmen and soldiers in the 17th and 18th centuries used a similar short and broad backsword called a hanger, or in German a messer, meaning "knife".

This weapon had a short and more or less curved single-edged blade with a brass hilt of a rather flat double-shell and knuckle-bow.

[6] Although also used on land, the cutlass is best known as the sailor's preferred weapon, as it was robust enough to hack or cut through heavy ropes, thick canvas, and dense vegetation while being short enough to be used in relatively close quarters combat, such as during boarding actions, in the rigging, or below decks.

French historian Alexandre Exquemelin reports the buccaneer François l'Ollonais using a cutlass as early as 1667.

Pirates used these weapons for intimidation as much as for combat, often needing no more than to grip their hilts to induce a crew to surrender, or beating captives with the flat of the blade to force their compliance or responsiveness to interrogation.

The leadcutter sword was a weapon modelled on the cutlass, designed for use in shows and demonstrations of swordsmanship in the late Victorian era.

[15] Provincial police forces sometimes deployed cutlasses during public disorder, using the hilts and flat edges of the blades to strike rioters, but there is no record of anyone being killed with one.

[22] That approval came in January 2011, and the cutlass was made available for ceremonial wear by Chief Petty Officers in August of that same year.