The Serpente class was a class of four 20-gun corvettes for the French Navy, designed by Charles-Henri Tellier as a follow-on to the Etna-class corvettes of the previous year.

[2] Four separate commercial shipbuilders were involved in their construction by contract, with three being ordered at Honfleur in 1794 and a fourth at Le Havre across the Seine estuary in 1795.

The vessels were flush-decked and designed to carry a battery of twenty 18-pounder guns.

[2] The Royal Navy captured one of the four vessels in the class, and burnt another in action.