carpenter
/ˈkɑɹpəntɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.81 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
noun
A senior rating in ships responsible for all the woodwork onboard; in the days of sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars and boats of a ship, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the ship was making water.
noun
noun
name
A surname originating as an occupation derived from the trade name carpenter.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The large, stout African bees are carpenters (Xylocopa), making small tunnels in timber, housing few individuals."
- "Eleven names in Laver’s table (just over 6%) are of the “carpenter” type, a name for woodlice also recorded in Shropshire and Warwickshire.[…] Apparently a Newfoundland word for woodlouse is “carpenter” or “cafner” (another is also “boat-builder”). These names clearly relate to the animals’ affinity to wood as will “carpenter’s flea”, “wood-pig”, “wood-bug”, “grampus wood-bug” and, of course “woodlouse”."
- "Among the celebrities she considers part of her zillennial cohort are Zendaya and American singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter."
Etymology
From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius (“a carpenter”), from Latin carpentārius (“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum (“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos (“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”). Doublet of carpintero. More at car. Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: carpenter, carpentārius, carpentum, carbantos, *karbantos, carpentarius
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɑɹpəntɚ/
- British English: /ˈkɑː.pən.tə/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
carpenter ant
carpenter bee
carpenter miller
carpenter moth
carpenter pencil
carpenter's pencil
carpenter's plane
carpenter's square