gâteau
noun
a cake, especially a very light sponge cake with a rich icing or filling.
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:
She once filmed herself plating an elaborate dessert—a petit gâteau in the shape of a Christmas ornament from the Miami bakery Bachour—only to have it slip off her spatula and break.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
For dessert, the VIPs were served a sweet beehive-shaped chocolate gâteau with a vanilla bean crémeux custard.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
Her most popular items include wondrously fluffy souffle cheesecake, minimally sweet strawberry cake and a tender single-layer matcha gâteau.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2023
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
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
Tiramisu I condemned as the black forest gateau of the 90s, yet at the same time toyed with it; now that the age has passed, I make it without apology.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2015
"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
“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
Afterwards we found two shops in Villeneuve where they had the most delicious petits gâteaux, fresh every day, and nothing but the mania for unattainable grapes prevented the first explorers from seeing them.
From A Little Swiss Sojourn by William Dean Howells
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.
