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The sabre and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the sword's point, leading to the development of a fighting style which closely resembles modern fencing.

Their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. Thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and inflict deep stab wounds. In the early modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabres. The use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or, in a modern context, as fencing. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration Period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger the earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting.