Draft

How to spell draft

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce draft

What does draft mean?

1. nounAn early, unfinished version of a piece of writing that will be revised before it is final.
2. verbTo write a preliminary version of a document, letter, or plan.
3. nounCompulsory enrolment of people for military service.
4. nounA written order directing a bank to pay a specified sum of money.

Draft in a sentence

• noun

  She emailed the first draft of the report for review.

• verb

  The lawyer agreed to draft the new lease agreement.

• noun

  His grandfather was called up in the wartime draft.

• noun

  The buyer settled the invoice with a banker's draft.

• noun

  The contract is still in draft and has not been signed.

• verb

  Please draft a polite reply to the customer complaint.

Where does draft come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English noun 'draht', meaning a pulling or drawing, which grew out of the verb 'dragan', 'to draw' or 'to pull'. That same Germanic root gives us the everyday verb 'draw', and the connecting idea runs through every modern meaning: a current of air is drawn through a room, a load is drawn by an animal, liquid is drawn from a barrel, and a writer draws out a first version of a document. For centuries English wrote the word as 'draught', preserving the old 'gh' spelling that once marked a guttural sound. From around the sixteenth century onward, writers began spelling it 'draft' to match the way it was actually pronounced, and in time the two spellings split duties: in British usage 'draught' tends to cover beer, air currents and animal-drawn loads, while 'draft' settles on the document, the banking order and military conscription. The trap, then, is remembering that 'draft' is the streamlined spelling, with no silent 'gh' to drop in.

How the word is built

• draf- (drawn, pulled, from the same root as 'draw')
• -t (noun-forming ending); 'draft' is the phonetic respelling of older 'draught'

British and American spelling

Draft is the American spelling. British English spells it draught.