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

State media reported there being 237 workers on site when the fire started in a first-floor workshop.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

There’s also a mill — a 40,000-square foot workshop space — a cafe, plenty of parking and quick access to area freeways.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026

The sound of pliers clicking filled a workshop in eastern China's Hangzhou as a group of women practised stripping wires, their female instructor moving around the classroom to offer advice.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

In 1997, Socolow ran a summer workshop for the U.S.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

Later, the same empousa had attacked them in Daedalus’s workshop.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

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

Her company now has a monthlong backlog of orders, with workshops consistently fully booked.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

They laughed, and moved back into the workshops, where a later, more advanced model of the intention craft was awaiting their inspection.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

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

In response, he studied up on dance music and workshopped fusing the Miami bass of “Rich Baby Daddy” with French club tones, progressive metal bass, and modern hip-pop.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

People inside the company workshopped how to communicate this week’s retirement in a way that respected users, anticipating some would be upset, the people briefed on the decision said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 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

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

Markwayne Mullin has a brilliantly dumb idea he’s workshopping.

From Slate ● May 30, 2026

Indeed, Cassidy’s road show, which he’s been workshopping sporadically since 2019, is a songs-and-stories affair in which he looks back on an eventful life he has yet to recount in a book.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 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