Word.ws English Dictionary

wordshaping

wordshaping noun: the art or practice of shaping, forming, or creating words.

Noun

wordshaping (uncountable)

  1. The art or practice of shaping, forming, or creating words.
    • Another fault exists in our Hebrew books of instruction: though they greedily compare roots or what are supposed to be roots, they exclude the general principles of wordshaping, which as long as man has a mouth will be found prevailing […]1861, Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Spoon and sparrow
    • Marie von Sievers had her place in the art of word-shaping; to dramatic representation she had the most beautiful relationship.2003, Rudolf Steiner, Story of My Life
  2. The art of using words to form representations or images.
    • Such word-shaping is useful to all wayfinders but particularly so to wayfinders with one or another form of sight-impairment. Word-shaping is particularly important in the context of wayfinding because of most sign-panels […]2000, Philip G. Barker, Masoud Yazdani, Iconic communication

Forms of wordshaping

alternative formword-shaping
alternative formword shaping

Origin of wordshaping

From word + shaping. Compare Dutch woordschepping, German Wortschöpfung (“word creation”), Swedish ordskapande.

Questions about wordshaping

What does wordshaping mean?
Wordshaping means the art or practice of shaping, forming, or creating words.
What part of speech is wordshaping?
Wordshaping is a noun.

Words near wordshaping in the dictionary

  1. wordscapes
  2. wordsearch
  3. wordsearches
  4. wordshape
  5. wordshapes
  6. wordshaping
  7. wordship
  8. wordsize
  9. wordsizes
  10. Wordsley
  11. wordsman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wordshaping (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “wordshaping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wordshaping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.