cordel

== English == === Etymology === From Spanish cordel (“surveying rope, 50 varas”), from Catalan cordell (“cord, string”), from Vulgar Latin *cordellus (“little rope”), from Latin chorda (“rope, cord”) + -ellus (“-elle: forming diminutives”). Equivalent to cord +‎ -el. === Noun === cordel (plural cordels or cordeles) (historical) Spanish chain, a traditional Spanish and Mexican unit of distance equivalent to about 41.9 m. ==== Coordinate terms ==== vara (1⁄50 cordel), estado (1⁄25 cordel), legua (100 cordeles) == Portuguese == === Pronunciation === Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɛl, (Brazil) -ɛw Hyphenation: cor‧del === Noun === cordel m (plural cordéis) strand (short string) === Further reading === “cordel”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026 “cordel”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026 == Spanish == === Etymology === Borrowed from Catalan cordell (“cord, string”), from Vulgar Latin *cordellus (“little rope, cord, string”), from Latin chorda (“rope, cord”) + -ellus (“-elle: forming diminutives”). Equivalent to corda +‎ -el. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /koɾˈdel/ [koɾˈð̞el] Rhymes: -el Syllabification: cor‧del === Noun === cordel m (plural cordeles) string (thin thread) Synonym: mecate twine (thin cord or rope) Synonym: cuerda (historical) chain (surverying or measuring rope, typically of 50 or 100 varas) (historical) cordel, Spanish chain (a traditional unit of length equivalent to about 41.9 m in 19th-century Spain) ==== Coordinate terms ==== vara (1⁄50 cordel), estado (1⁄25 cordel), legua (100 cordeles) ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== === Further reading === “cordel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025