Dupleix was a wooden-hulled screw corvette of the Cosmao class built for the French Navy. She was the first French vessel named after the 18th century governor of Pondichéry and governor general of the French possessions in India, Marquess Joseph François Dupleix. Laid down in 1856 at Cherbourg Dockyard and commissioned in 1861, Dupleix was assigned to France's Far East colonies. There, the vessel took part in the Boshin War and Franco-Prussian War. The ship returned to France and performed fishery patrols off Iceland until being taken out of service in 1887. The ship was scrapped in 1880.

A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war.