A smith is someone whose job involves making things out of metal. Visit a historically accurate colonial village and you might see a smith making tools or nails by hand. Smith or smithy is shorthand for blacksmith, an artisan who hammers tools and other items out of hot iron or steel.

It dates back to the Anglo-Saxon era and derives from the occupation of 'smith', from the Old English 'Smid', which means to hit or to strike, and was used to describe someone who worked with metal (a blacksmith for example).

A smith can be any maker but particularly refers to one who works in metals. A blacksmith is usually one who forges iron, while a whitesmith or tinsmith works with tin or other lighter materials. The word smith derives from Old English and is probably a cousin to the Greek word for a wood-carving knife.

Examples of smith in a Sentence Ancient smiths developed the techniques needed to make metal tools.