designer
Americannoun
-
designers
plural
-
a person who devises or executes designs, especially one who creates forms, structures, and patterns, as for works of art or machines.
-
a schemer, intriguer, or plotter.
adjective
-
designed or created by or carrying a label or identification of a designer, especially a fashion designer, but often mass-produced.
designer jeans.
-
created for intentional effect through chemical or genetic modification, as for a designer drug, or through crossbreeding, as for a designer dog.
noun
-
a person who devises and executes designs, as for works of art, clothes, machines, etc
-
(modifier) designed by and bearing the label or signature of a well-known fashion designer
designer jeans
-
(modifier) (of things, ideas, etc) having an appearance of fashionable trendiness
designer pop songs
designer stubble
-
(modifier) (of cells, chemicals, etc) designed (or produced) to perform a specific function or combat a specific problem
designer insecticide
-
(modifier) (of an animal) cross-bred for a specific purpose, such as looks, temperament, or likelihood of causing an allergy
designer dogs
-
a person who devises plots or schemes; intriguer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of designer
Explanation
A designer is a person who plans how something will look. An architect is a designer of buildings, drawing detailed blueprints indicating what the structures should look like and how they should be built. The word designer came into English in the seventeenth century meaning "one who schemes." The word soon came to describe someone who figures out how something should look, especially something artistic. If you're reading a newspaper, a graphic designer planned how the text and images should look on each page. You might also be familiar with a fashion designer, someone who comes up with a vision for a garment and creates sketches to show what the finished product will look like.
Vocabulary lists containing designer
Occupations
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Engineering - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Academy Awards, List 3
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Exactly a year since he unveiled his first collection at Chanel, Franco-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy has proved himself to be a shrewd and hugely profitable recruit by the family-owned French fashion label.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
The Jennifer Meyer shop has reopened in Palisades Village after the 2025 fires, marking a homecoming for the L.A. native jewelry designer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
This year's patron, knitwear designer Helen Robertson, said: "I think wool week is just such a fantastic organisation and festival, and it's really brought Shetland textiles to life."
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Rather it’s in the roster of offbeat characters—among them, an action-film star who has surprising literary talent; Batter’s loving, endlessly optimistic mother, a typeface designer; and Batter himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
The job was handed to Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, the nation's top aircraft designer and engineer.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
The designers said in a note they wanted to "open the wardrobes of the great Sicilian families" and create a dialogue between "the precious and the everyday".
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
We were all amateur production designers of our own domestic lives.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Whilst some designers have been taking cues from the great outdoors - others have been inspired by film.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
It has tried to meet the human-defined objectives set out before it through a path its designers failed to constrain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
She had her robes made by Claude DeGlasse, one of the world’s preeminent fashion designers.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
