Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.
nounA 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.
Sentence Examples
Abraham Lincoln's father was a carpenter by trade.
A bad carpenter quarrels with his tools.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The skilled ____ built a sturdy oak table for the dining room.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The skilled ____ built a beautiful wooden table for the dining room.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The large, stout African bees are carpenters (Xylocopa), making small tunnels in timber, housing few individuals."
— 1968, Elliot C. G. Pinhey, Introduction to insect study in Africa, page 146:
"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”."
— 2015, A.D. Barber, “Vernacular names of woodlice with particular reference to Devonshire”, in Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group, page 58:
"Among the celebrities she considers part of her zillennial cohort are Zendaya and American singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter."
— 2023 May 10, Terry Ward, “Zillennials: The newest micro-generation has a name”, in CNN: