What does guild mean?
Word: Guild
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Guild means a group of people who share the same trade or interest. In the Middle Ages it was a society of skilled workers.
Sounds like: gild (to cover something with a thin layer of gold)
How do you spell guild?
Syllables: guild
Tricky part: The u after the g is silent, and pupils who drop it end up with a different word.
Watch out for: guld, gulid, giuld
Memory tip: Guitar teaches the same lesson: you never hear the u after the g, yet it must be there.
Guild in a sentence
Example 1: The writers' guild meets at the town hall once a month.
Example 2: In the old city, the weavers' guild decided who could sell cloth in the market.
Example 3: My uncle belongs to a guild of potters.
Fun Fact
In medieval Europe a young person could spend seven years or more as a trainee before a guild accepted them as a master of the craft.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are misspelt. Choose the meaning of the one spelt correctly.
1. blaksmith 2. guild 3. aprentice 4. merchent
a) someone who buys and sells goods
b) a worker who shapes iron by heating it
c) a person learning a trade from a skilled worker
d) an organised body of people in one craft
Show answer
d) an organised body of people in one craft. The list misspells apprentice, merchant and blacksmith, so guild stands.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word guild as used in the sentence:
The city's guild of glass-makers welcomed three new members this spring.
a) contest
b) library
c) association
d) festival
Show answer
c) association. An association is a body of people joined by a shared aim.
Mingle-Mangle
Rearrange the jumbled letters in the sentence to form the right word:
A luidg of bakers in the old town set fair prices for every loaf and bun.
a) guide
b) guilt
c) build
d) guild
Show answer
d) guild. Only guild uses all five letters shown, with no e, t or b.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
guilld
a) d
b) l
c) i
d) u
Show answer
b) l. A single l comes before the final d.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What would a medieval weavers' guild most likely do?
a) set quality standards for local cloth
b) write laws for the whole of the kingdom
c) build roads between faraway towns
d) collect taxes on behalf of the king
Show answer
a) set quality standards for local cloth
2. Which modern group is closest to a guild?
a) a crowd at a cricket match
b) a class of pupils on a school trip
c) a society of professional photographers
d) a queue of people at a bus stop
Show answer
c) a society of professional photographers
