guild

See also: Guild

English

Alternative forms

(obsolete) gild

Etymology

From Middle English gilde, from Old Norse gildi (“payment, guild”). Related to geld, yield, yauld.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɪld/
• Rhymes: -ɪld
• Homophones: gild, gilled

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

guild (plural guilds)

1. A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of merchants, craftspeople, or artisans for mutual aid, particularly in the Middle Ages.
   • 2003, “Guild of Mute Assassins”, performed by Clutch:

     The swinging of its censers, the silence of its members / Oh, the Guild of Mute Assassins

2. A corporation.
3. (ecology) A group of diverse species that share common characteristics or habits.
4. (video games) An organized group of players who regularly play together in a multiplayer game.

Synonyms

• (medieval professional associations): Hanse (merchants)
• (modern professional associations): trade union, union, professional association

Derived terms

• altar guild

 

Translations

association of tradespeople

• Armenian: գիլդիա (hy) (gildia), համքարություն (hy) (hamkʻarutʻyun)
• Bulgarian: еснаф (bg) m (esnaf), гилдия (bg) f (gildija)
• Catalan: corporació (ca), confraria (ca), ram (ca) m, gremi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 行會／行会 (zh) (hánghuì), 同業公會／同业公会 (zh) (tóngyè gōnghuì), 公會／公会 (zh) (gōnghuì)

• Czech: cech (cs) m
• Danish: lav (da)
• Dutch: gilde (nl) n
• Esperanto: gildo (eo)
• Finnish: kilta (fi)
• French: guilde (fr) f
• Galician: gremio m, confraría f
• German: Gilde (de) f, Zunft (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: συντεχνία f (suntekhnía)

• Hindi: संगठन (hi) m (saṅgṭhan), संगम (hi) m (saṅgam)
• Hungarian: céh (hu)
• Ido: gildo (io)
• Indonesian: gilda
• Irish: gild m (historical), cuallacht f
• Italian: gilda, fraglia f
• Japanese: ギルド (girudo), 公会 (ja) (kōkai), 行会 (yukiai, gyōkai, kōkai)
• Latin: collēgium n, gilda, ghilda, confrāternitās f
• Latvian: cunfte f, amats (lv) m
• Lithuanian: gildija
• Low German:

  German Low German: gill

• Macedonian: еснаф (esnaf), цех m (ceh)
• Malay: perseikatan
• Norwegian: laug
• Ottoman Turkish: لونجه (lonca)
• Polish: gildia (pl), cech (pl)
• Portuguese: guilda (pt) f, grêmio (pt), confraria (pt)
• Russian: ги́льдия (ru) f (gílʹdija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: це̏х m

  Roman: cȅh (sh) m

• Slovene: ceh (sl)
• Spanish: germanía (es) f, gremio (es) m
• Swedish: skrå (sv) n, gille (sv) n
• Tagalog: gremyo
• Thai: สมาคมอาชีพ
• Welsh: urdd f
• Zazaki: gome

See also

• (meeting place): guild hall, guildhall, guildsman, guildswoman, common house, common hall

References

• The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009
• Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003