blacksmith
Americannoun
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blacksmiths
plural
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a person who makes horseshoes and shoes horses.
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a person who forges objects of iron.
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a blackish damselfish, Chromis punctipinnis, inhabiting coastal waters off southern California.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of blacksmith
1250–1300; Middle English; see black (in reference to iron or black metal), smith ( def. ); cf. whitesmith
Explanation
A blacksmith is someone who makes tools and other objects out of metal. Working as a blacksmith involves heating metal then bending and hammering it into the desired shape. Blacksmiths mainly work with iron and steel, heating it until it's soft enough to bend, fold, and shape using tools. A blacksmith can make things like wrought iron fences and gates, knives and other cooking utensils, and metal light fixtures. While today many metal items once made by blacksmiths are mass produced in factories, there's a renewed interest in learning to make metal objects by hand.
Vocabulary lists containing blacksmith
The Cardboard Kingdom
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He then asked a local blacksmith to turn his idea into a functional device.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Guests stroll into blacksmith shops and corn mills, dine on cinnamon bread and other local delicacies, and seek quiet time in an authentic Appalachian chapel.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
The game was played on a field behind the shop of the local blacksmith.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
Became a blacksmith — he put the shoes on the horses that Barton and his constables were going to use to pursue Las Manillas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
It was an Osage trading store, and nearby was a grubby rooming house and a blacksmith shop with an immense pile of horseshoes.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Joe said there were more blacksmiths than people might expect, with about 1,800 members of the British Artistic Blacksmithing Association.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Metals get softer when they are heated, which is how blacksmiths can form iron into complex shapes by heating it red hot.
From Science Daily ● May 22, 2024
In Denny’s telling, dreams of wizards and blacksmiths, dark forests and dank castles shape the newest digital realms.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2024
Some blacksmiths are “Game of Thrones” or “Lord of the Rings” die-hards who want to bring imaginary worlds to life.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 25, 2023
“Thank you, sir. Any blacksmiths ’tween here and the city?”
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
