workshop

American  

[wurk-shop] / ˈwɜrkˌʃɒp /

noun

workshops plural

1. a room, group of rooms, or building in which work, especially mechanical work, is carried on.

2. a seminar, discussion group, or the like, that emphasizes exchange of ideas and the demonstration and application of techniques, skills, etc..

   a theater workshop; an opera workshop.

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verb (used with object)

workshopped, workshopping

1. to experiment with different versions of (a play or other performance), often in a collaborative environment.

   Most comedians workshop their jokes in smaller clubs before adding them to a polished routine.

workshop British  

/ ˈwɜːkˌʃɒp /

noun

1. a room or building in which manufacturing or other forms of manual work are carried on

2. a room in a private dwelling, school, etc, set aside for crafts

3. a group of people engaged in study or work on a creative project or subject

   a music workshop

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verb

1. (tr) to perform (a play) with no costumes, set, or musical accompaniment

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• postworkshop
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• workshops
  plural

Etymology

Origin of workshop

First recorded in 1555–65; work + shop

Explanation

A workshop is a place you go to work. If your mother enjoys carpentry, she might have a workshop in the basement where she can build furniture. Workshops are for making and fixing things like wooden furniture, cars, or mysterious inventions. A shorthand way to refer to a workshop is shop, as in the shop class offered in many high schools, which usually meets in a workshop. The noun workshop also means a course or meeting at which a work in progress — often a story, poem, or script — is discussed by a group of writers.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

workshop workshops workshopped workshopping

At a secondary school in Naples, students file into a classroom for a nutrition workshop run by the Valter Longo Foundation.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

Other structures found on the 40-acre spread include a heated workshop, a car shop, and three water wells.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

The workshop summary is not proposing that humanity begin terraforming Mars tomorrow.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

The most meaningful one for her was an ornament workshop attended by several victims of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

Dad once came to school to do a writer’s workshop with us in English class.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

Operating since 1902, it's one of just two scissor-makers left in the city, which once boasted a blade manufacturing industry of over 100 workshops.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Quaker-inspired coalition also founded New York’s Strother School of Radical Attention, which offers courses and workshops on attention as a practice that, maintained and exerted, makes it easier to recognize and refuse such extraction.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

The doorknob-size piece, inlaid with carnelian, agate and lapis lazuli flowers reminiscent of the Taj, exemplifies how even the smallest functional item would be meticulously crafted and decorated in a consistent style in Mughal workshops.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

At Angie Fadel’s Mindful Archery workshops in Los Angeles, women and nonbinary attendees use bow and arrow instruction, somatic breathwork and nature therapy to release stress and find inner strength.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Soon enough, I reached that area of the riverfront known as Smokey Hollow, an industrial labyrinth of factories and workshops.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Under Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, the two vice chairs helped build support for a policy proposal they workshopped ahead of the meeting, giving markets a read on their thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

With his team, he workshopped lines they hoped would be like a bucket of ice water, including a slogan Carney had used before: “Nostalgia is not a strategy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

The musical will be further workshopped later this year, with the team aiming for the first public performances in 2027.

From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026

NBC announcing team Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir dubbed the trio of medal contenders “the big three,” but the skaters workshopped their own nickname after nationals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026

In the professional theater world, you would say they have been workshopped.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister started workshopping their text messages to Trump, talking about which words they should render in capital letters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

A group of bondholders recently met in Washington to present to the world’s top economists and policymakers a proposal they had been workshopping for the past year.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

She recalled workshopping Khong’s title story a decade ago with their longtime Bay Area writers group — about a newlywed who dies, goes to heaven and encounters her husband there again.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026

Indeed, the administration is already workshopping a version of this argument, noting in Khalil’s case that their enforcement actions are entitled to a “presumption of regularity” by the courts.

From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2025

One recipe I’ve been quietly workshopping in anticipation of cooler weather is a beef-and-mushroom stroganoff with a horseradish cream sauce.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2025

Related Words

• factory
• laboratory
• mill
• plant
• studio