craftsman
Americannoun
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craftsmen
plural
-
a person who practices or is highly skilled in a craft; artisan.
- Synonyms:
- handicraftsman, artificer
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an artist.
noun
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a member of a skilled trade; someone who practises a craft; artisan
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Also called: craftswoman. an artist skilled in the techniques of an art or craft
Gender
Is craftsman gender-neutral? See -man.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of craftsman
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English craftes man “man of skill,” earlier craftman; compare Old English cræftiga “craftsman, workman” (derivative of cræftig “skilled”; see crafty)
Compare meaning
How does craftsman compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Vocabulary lists containing craftsman
History of India - Introductory
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African History - Introductory
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History of India - Middle School and High School
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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:
"I voted for peace. Only Pashinyan can bring peace," one voter, 63-year-old craftsman Hakob Hakobyan, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 7, 2026
Everywhere you look will be an homage to the craftsman style that’s such a part of Pasadena’s history.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has awarded £2,779 to master craftsman Thomas Keyes to conduct an experimental archaeology project later this year.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
Patterson, who died in 1972, hailed from the same region of Washington as Evans; the documentarian discovered that the hardscrabble cowboy had also been a gifted craftsman and artist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Mahmoud wanted Mohammed, and all of his sons, working on dry land, so Mohammed spent his early teenage years as a craftsman, laying brick and apprenticing for an ironsmith.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
The rhythmic clanging of hammers on bronze echoes through the Istanbul workshop where three craftsmen are landing blows with astonishing precision to transform featureless metal discs into highly prized handcrafted cymbals.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
Montblanc’s craftsmen are rigorously trained; for example, learning how to grind a gold nib takes over six months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
The old chairs are then painstakingly restored with the help of skilled craftsmen, a process that can take months.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
Smaller versions are also produced by the city's craftsmen and adorn lamp posts, office buildings and homes across the archipelago nation of 116 million which is home to Asia's largest Catholic population.
From Barron's ● Dec. 19, 2025
Long-standing traditions allow gamelan craftsmen to reliably produce such impressive feats of tuning.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
