gâteau
noun
a cake, especially a very light sponge cake with a rich icing or filling.
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gâteau
American
[ga-toh, gah-, gah-toh]
/ gæˈtoʊ, gɑ-, gɑˈtoʊ /
noun
French Cooking.
-
gâteaux
plural
gateau
British
/ ˈɡætəʊ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gâteau
1835–45; < French; Old French gastel (compare Middle English wastel < Old North French ) < Frankish *wastil, perhaps akin to Old English, Old Saxon wist food, nourishment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For dessert, the VIPs were served a sweet beehive-shaped chocolate gâteau with a vanilla bean crémeux custard.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
The original recipe is called “Le gâteau au chocolat fondant de Nathalie” on Page 14, and a photo on Page 15 shows a rather plain, if dense, chocolate cake with a slice taken out.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 4, 2023
Also, gâteau de crêpes, which is an insanely challenging dish.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2022
And once you’ve had Pichet’s gâteau au foie de volaille — velvety chicken liver terrine — it’s difficult not to order that to go with your complimentary hunk of baguette.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 2017
Nor were the good folks of those days without their simnels, cracknels, and other sorts of cakes for the table, among which in the wastel we recognise the equivalent of the modern French gâteau.
From Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine by William Carew Hazlitt
‘Prawned cocktail, coronation chicken, Black Forest gateau, onion soup. Done properly, they’re all delicious. Where’s all that kind of food gone?’
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2026
Dorret Conway had a nightmare in her maiden week as her Black Forest gateau was more mudslide than moreish.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2016
"Maybe these songs are such intense characters that they'd become too sickly if they were longer. You want a slice of nice gateau instead of scoffing the whole cake."
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2014
Or it could be seen as a profound glorying in every aspect of their existence; either way, the picture remains as delicious as any slice of chocolate gateau.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 21, 2010
“You missed the Sorting, anyway,” said Hermione, as Ron dived for a large chocolate gateau.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Behind the fancy pastries, the colorful gâteaux and the bonbons covered in glossy chocolate that breaks with a crisp snap are the standards, sweets that have been loved for generations, some for centuries.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2022
Glass display cases show off rows of colorful, picture-perfect petits gâteaux, and croissants with so many layers that they’re almost reminiscent of the rings of a tree.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2022
They are by nature much sturdier and simpler than the precious gâteaux, tartes, tortes, and petits fours of the great French and Austro-Hungarian baking traditions.
From Slate ● Jul. 9, 2018
“For breakfast, many people have bread, cheese and gâteaux piments,” my driver Raju explained, as he helped select four perfectly plump morsels for 10 rupees, about 30 cents.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2017
Ordinarily no refreshments were given: one conscientious lady, however, told her friends that her surplus card-money enabled her to treat them with ices and petits gâteaux.
From Four Years in France or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic Faith by Henry Digby Beste
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
