caravel

American  

[kar-uh-vel] / ˈkær əˌvɛl /

noun

caravels plural

1. a small Spanish or Portuguese sailing vessel of the Middle Ages and later, usually lateen-rigged on two or three masts.

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caravel British  

/ ˈkærəˌvɛl /

noun

1. a two- or three-masted sailing ship, esp one with a broad beam, high poop deck, and lateen rig that was used by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• caravels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of caravel

1520–30; < Middle French car ( a ) velle < Portuguese caravela, equivalent to cárav ( o ) kind of ship (< Late Latin carabus a small wicker boat < Greek kárabos skiff, crayfish) + -ela diminutive suffix

Explanation

A caravel was a European ship with triangular sails used from the 15th to 17th centuries. Two of Christopher Columbus's ships, Niña and the Pinta, were caravels. The caravel was popular with Portuguese and Spanish explorers because it was light and agile, with lateen sails designed for speed and able to head directly into the wind. Sailors could guide a small caravel along the shore, but this type of ship was also sturdy enough for the open sea. Caravel is from the Portuguese caravela, "small vessel," derived from a Latin word meaning "small wicker boat covered with leather" and the Greek karabos, "beetle."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caravel caravels

The ships, owned by the Columbus Foundation, based in the British Virgin Islands, serve as a sailing museum to educate the public about the kind of Portuguese ship called the caravel.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2017

The ships, owned by the Columbus Foundation, based in the British Virgin Islands, serves as a sailing museum to educate the public about the kind of Portuguese ship called the caravel.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 10, 2017

They’d rather have been talking about the new soccer stadium going up at the edge of downtown, its great steel beams pushing into the sky, curving like the frame of some ancient caravel.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2016

He draped saffron chiffon beneath the skylight, and hung a lantern shaped like a caravel.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015

Another time it had looked vaguely like a caravel.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

Thanks to its location and prevailing winds, the Azores have attracted sailors since the age of Spanish galleons, Portuguese caravels and the voyages of discovery.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022

Skilled shipbuilders and navigators who took advantage of maps from all over Europe, Portuguese sailors used triangular sails and built lighter vessels called caravels that could sail down the African coast.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014

Santo Domingo, found in 1496 by Christopher Columbus who "with fragile caravels of discovery opened new routes on unknown seas," shook hands with Col.

From Time Magazine Archive

His caravels crawling painfully across the Atlantic for 71 days brought it very little closer.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Voyagers are caravels bound for the stars, and on the way exploring those worlds that Huygens knew and loved so well.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan