Maker

How to spell maker

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce maker

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does maker mean?

1. nounA person or company that produces or manufactures something.

Maker in a sentence

• The furniture maker delivered the table a week early.

• She became a respected maker of handmade leather bags.

Where does maker come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English verb 'make', which descends from the Old English 'macian', meaning to bring into being, to fashion, or to construct. That verb belongs to a wider West Germanic family, related to the Dutch 'maken' and the German 'machen', all carrying the sense of fitting or shaping something together. The agent ending '-er' is an equally old and thoroughly native suffix that turns a verb into 'one who performs the action', so 'maker' has straightforwardly meant 'one who makes' since the medieval period. Because both the root and the suffix are ordinary Germanic stock, the spelling is phonetically honest: the silent final 'e' of 'make' is simply dropped before the vowel-led '-er', which is the only small point a writer has to remember.

How the word is built

• make (to create or produce)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)