Ébéniste (pronounced: [ebenist]) is the French word for a cabinetmaker.

As opposed to ébéniste, "menuisier" denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker in French. The English equivalent for ébéniste, "ebonist", is never commonly used. Originally, an ébéniste was one who worked with ebony, a favoured luxury wood for mid-seventeenth century Parisian cabinets, originating in imitation of elite furniture being made in Antwerp. The word is 17th century in origin. Early Parisian ébénistes often came from the Low Countries themselves: an outstanding example is Pierre Golle, who worked at the Gobelins manufactory making cabinets and table tops veneered with marquetry, the traditional enrichment of ébénisterie, or "cabinet-work".

Ébénistes make case furniture, which may be veneered or painted. Under Parisian guild regulations, the application of painted varnishes, generically called vernis Martin, was carried out in separate workshops, sawdust being an enemy to freshly varnished surfaces. At the outset of the French Revolution the guilds in Paris and elsewhere were abolished, and with them went all their regulations. One result of this is that Paris chairmakers were now able to produced veneered chairs, as London furniture-makers, less stringently ruled, had been able to make since the first chairs with splats had been produced shortly before 1720, in imitation of Chinese chairs.