guilds

Cultural  

1. Organizations of artisans in the Middle Ages that sought to regulate the price and quality of products such as weaving and ironwork. Guilds survived into the eighteenth century.

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Guilds gave way to trade unions, a very different type of organization. The artisans in the guilds were self-employed, unlike most members of trade unions.

Example Sentences

Echo and Liquid, guilds separated by an eight-hour time difference, are attacking the boss at the same time, and both are close to killing it.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2026

“Through the work of OHP, the Academy has also become the primary preservation repository for filmmaker interviews from the guilds and other sources,” notes the organization’s website.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 23, 2026

Its roots lie in the medieval stonemasons' guilds, and members still meet in "lodges" to carry out secretive initiation rituals and ceremonies based on allegories such as the building of King Solomon's Temple.

From BBC • Sep. 29, 2025

Sean Baker’s freewheeling fractured fairy tale took top honors from both the producing and directing guilds, restoring its front-runner status at the Oscars.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2025

He wrote more about Ayortha than I ever wished to know: how the guilds were structured; the number of gallons of milk produced in a year by one Ayorthaian cow; the construction of their manors.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine