A cape is a sleeveless piece of clothing that hangs from your shoulders and drapes down your back, fastening around your neck. Unlike a jacket with sleeves, a cape flows freely behind you. Superheroes wear capes that billow dramatically as they fly through the air. In colder weather, people might wear wool capes to stay warm while keeping their arms free to move.

The word also means a point of land that juts out into the ocean or a large lake. Cape Cod in Massachusetts curves out into the Atlantic Ocean like a bent arm. Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America was one of the most dangerous places for sailing ships to navigate.

Explorers often named capes after saints, monarchs, or the challenges they faced there. When sailors spotted a cape, they knew the coastline was changing direction, which helped them navigate before modern maps and GPS.