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

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Etymology

Origin of workshop

First recorded in 1555–65; work + shop

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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

Although he delivered the plan in English, he gave it a German name: Sportwagenschmiede ‘35, which translates loosely as “sports-car workshop ‘35.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

During his time with the theater group, his collaboration with co-founders Jules Irving and Herbert Blau helped transform the workshop into one of the first regional theater companies in the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

The term "artificial intelligence" was born in 1956 at an austere summer workshop at Dartmouth College.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

King Charles has visited a hi-tech music workshop for young people, in a collaboration between his King's Trust charity and technology firm Apple.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

If in thirteenth-century France Jean set up a wagon-manufacturing workshop, he himself was the business.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Family-friendly activities like face-painting, sugar skull workshops, and wellness offerings from community partners such as the Children’s Institute.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026

Saturday's itinerary varies widely depending on the location, from a music festival in Los Angeles and a march to the Supreme Court in Washington, to family-friendly workshops in Chicago and election observer training in Atlanta.

From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026

The festival, which begins later, offers a number of workshops, music events, talks and light installations until Sunday.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

We have begun hosting educational workshops promoting organ donation in memory of an alumnus who was killed—and whose organs have been transplanted in five others.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

But I was happy, because now I could venture outside to see the city after the daily workshops.

From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah

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

Raicek has been busy in preproduction on her play “Fire Season,” which has already been workshopped with actors including Billy Crudup and Amanda Seyfried.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 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

Videos appeared to show a man telling demonstrators that the chant had been "workshopped" in Oxford.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025

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

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

In conversations with European leaders he’d known as a central banker, Carney was workshopping proposals to deepen ties that were far ahead of most European officials.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 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

At least Zhao adds scenes that show him workshopping his material.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

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

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