Crafting

How to spell crafting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crafting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crafting mean?

1. nounThe activity of making decorative or practical objects by hand, often as a hobby.
2. verbSkilfully constructing or shaping something, whether an object, a document, or a plan.

Crafting in a sentence

• noun

  She spends every weekend afternoon crafting greeting cards at the kitchen table.

• verb

  The lawyer spent the morning crafting a careful response to the complaint.

• noun

  The community centre runs a crafting class for adults each winter.

• verb

  He is crafting a custom oak table for the dining room.

Where does crafting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word craft comes from the Old English cræft, which originally meant something far broader than handiwork: it carried the senses of strength, physical power, and even cunning, before it narrowed to mean skill in making things. That same root appears in the German Kraft, meaning force or power, a reminder that to be 'crafty' once implied being mighty or clever rather than merely deceitful. The form 'crafting' is the present participle and gerund built by adding the suffix -ing, a native English ending used to turn verbs into action nouns and continuous forms. The verb 'to craft', in the sense of making something with care and skill, grew out of the noun and has been in use for centuries. Its recent surge in popularity owes much to hobby culture and to video games, where 'crafting' describes assembling items from gathered materials. The spelling stays reassuringly regular: simply keep the whole word 'craft' intact and add '-ing', since the final t is not doubled.

How the word is built

• craft (Old English cræft: skill, power)
• -ing (verb/gerund suffix)