carpenter
noun
a person who builds or repairs wooden structures, as houses, scaffolds, or shelving.
carpenter
1 American
[kahr-puhn-ter]
/ ˈkɑr pən tər /
noun
-
carpenters
plural
verb (used without object)
-
carpenters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
carpentered,
past participle, past
-
carpentering
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
carpenters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
carpentered,
past participle, past
-
carpentering
present participle
-
to make by carpentry.
-
to construct (a plot, scene, article, or the like) in a mechanical or unoriginal fashion.
Carpenter
2
American
[kahr-puhn-ter]
/ ˈkɑr pən tər /
noun
-
John Alden, 1876–1951, U.S. composer.
-
(Malcolm) Scott, 1925–2013, U.S. astronaut and oceanographer.
carpenter
1
British
/ ˈkɑːpɪntə /
noun
verb
-
(intr) to do the work of a carpenter
-
(tr) to make or fit together by or as if by carpentry
Carpenter
2
British
/ ˈkɑːpɪntə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
carpentersimple
-
carpenterssimple
-
have carpenteredperfect
-
has carpenteredperfect
-
am carpenteringprogressive
-
are carpenteringprogressive
-
is carpenteringprogressive
-
have been carpenteringperfect progressive
-
has been carpenteringperfect progressive
Past
-
carpenteredsimple
-
had carpenteredperfect
-
was carpenteringprogressive
-
were carpenteringprogressive
-
had been carpenteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of carpenter
1275–1325; Middle English < Anglo-French < Late Latin carpentārius wainwright, equivalent to Latin carpent ( um ) two-wheeled carriage (< Celtic; compare Old Irish carpad chariot) + -ārius -ary; see -er 2
Explanation
A carpenter is a person who makes things out of wood. You could hire a carpenter to build you a dining room table and two long benches. Carpenters specialize in woodworking, making furniture and buildings from wood and repairing various wooden things. If you wanted beautiful handmade wooden cabinets in your kitchen, you'd hire a carpenter. The word has been around since the 14th century, but it's been a common last name for even longer. It comes from the Late Latin carpentarius, "wagon maker," with its root word carpentum, "wagon."
Vocabulary lists containing carpenter
Name That Job: Occupational Last Names
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"The Sword in the Stone" and "Was There a Real King Arthur?"
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"Core Curriculum: Introductory Craft Skills," Vocabulary from Module Three
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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:
The team revived original furnishings and interior and exterior walls, while constructing a new ADA-compliant Victorian carpenter gothic cottage with stylish board and batten siding, modeled after a 19th-century Sears kit house.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“But instead, I took the original ones to my carpenter and we had to pull the porch apart to reinstall them, and then we painted them eight different colors.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
"We live practically like fireflies here -- in the dark all the time. You never know when you'll have power; it's our sad reality," Julian Gonzalez, a 72-year-old carpenter, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
"It's a very money-driven society for young adults. When they see a carpenter doing what they like and making a lot of money fast, they see that as aspirational."
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
She got a carpenter to put together a number of slim tall stepladders and she placed one of these against each table in the house so that I could climb up whenever I wanted to.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
At the height of her fame and success in 1981, Carpenter weighed about 80 pounds.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026
Julia Carpenter spoke to behavioral economists and financial planners about ways to trick yourself into spending less.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Carpenter & Zuckerman is taking on a growing role in environmental litigation in the region.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Shows across the four-day period attracted star-studded attendees, including Bad Bunny, Hudson Williams, Sabrina Carpenter and Cardi B.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
When Carpenter invited Stevens to work for him, he did not hesitate.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
AI has also made its way into the software used by woodworkers and carpenters.
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
The construction and installation of offshore wind turbines requires the expertise of skilled electrical workers, pipe fitters, welders, pile drivers, iron workers, machinists and carpenters.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
The result: a 30% drop in employment from a late-2022 peak for actors, carpenters, costumers and the hundreds of other professions that make movies and TV shows, according to Labor Department data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Von Ungern-Sternberg was working for the Freiburg Chamber of Skilled Crafts in southwest Germany, a trade body that represents skilled workers, from bricklayers and carpenters, to butchers and bakers, and the companies that employ them.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
Over the next several days, we boys, servants, laborers, sailors, carpenters, and soldiers work as hard as mules.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Mines, of course, are highly constructed, carpentered environments—exactly the kind of environment that should produce a large illusion, according to the theory.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2025
For Christmas, he’d given her a table he had carpentered himself, and Karen was going to insist on returning it.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2019
Two farmers down the street asked to get married there last fall; guests ate at tables Sarver carpentered and danced late into the night beneath the barn’s vaulted ceiling and wooden beams.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 25, 2016
It’s open at the bottom, and I saw several people direct puzzled glances at its roughly carpentered interior.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 15, 2015
Rough stairs carpentered out of two by tens leading down into the darkness.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
He was a dab hand at carpentering, doctoring, shipbuilding and grape growing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
His upper body is hefty, his hands coarse from years of carpentering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2020
As the pictures show, hunting, fishing, farming, brickmaking, butchering, carpentering, dancing, drinking, feasting and mourning were essentially the same then as now.
From Time Magazine Archive
When a battalion marches into some remote, Ultima Thulish town and encamps for a few days or months, the soldiers practice shoe making, tinsmithing, weaving, carpentering and all manner of simple crafts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts from books which they had brought out of the farmhouse.
From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell
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.
