Craft vs. Trade: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
"Craft" refers to the skilled practice of creating items by hand, while "trade" encompasses the actions of buying, selling, or exchanging goods and services.
Key Differences
Craft involves creating and designing handmade items, emphasizing artistry and skill. Trade refers to the business of buying and selling or bartering goods and services, focusing on commerce and exchange.
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Nov 13, 2023
The term craft often connotes an artisanal or creative process, possibly a hobby or profession. Trade, in contrast, signifies a commercial activity, often involving negotiations and exchanges on a larger scale.
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Nov 13, 2023
Craft is associated with specialized skills and techniques in making decorative or functional items. Trade encompasses a broader spectrum of economic activities, including services, finance, and the movement of goods.
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Nov 13, 2023
While craft typically implies a personal, hands-on involvement in creating something, trade is about the exchange of commodities or services, often for profit or economic gain.
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Craft can be an expression of cultural heritage or personal creativity, whereas trade is driven by market dynamics, supply and demand, and economic principles.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
The skill of making things by hand
The business of buying, selling, or exchanging goods and services
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Scope
Usually individual or small-scale
Can be local, national, or international in scale
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Goal
Creation of unique, often artistic items
Economic gain, market expansion
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Nature
Often artisanal and culturally significant
Market-driven and profit-oriented
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Craft and Trade Definitions
Craft
The activity of making things by hand with skill.
She honed her craft in pottery over many years.
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Nov 13, 2023
Trade
The business of buying and selling commodities, products, or services; commerce.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
Skill in deceiving to achieve one's purpose.
She used her craft to navigate the complex politics of the office.
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Nov 13, 2023
Craft
Skill in planning, making, or executing.
The craft in her writing is visible in her compelling narratives.
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Nov 13, 2023
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Trade
The people working in or associated with a business or industry
Writers, editors, and other members of the publishing trade.
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Trade
The activity or volume of buying or selling
The trade in stocks was brisk all morning.
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Trade
An exchange of one thing for another
Baseball teams making a trade of players.
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Craft
An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry.
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Trade
An occupation, especially one requiring skilled labor; craft
The building trades.
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Craft
The practitioners of such an occupation or trade considered as a group.
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Trade
To be offered for sale or be sold
Stocks traded at lower prices this morning.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To give in exchange for something else
Trade farm products for manufactured goods.
Will trade my ticket for yours.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
Ability, skilfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning; ingenuity in constructing, dexterity .
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Craft
Cunning, art, skill, or dexterity applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; subtlety; shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception .
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
(collective or plural) Handmade items, especially domestic or decorative objects; handicrafts .
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
Of or relating to books that are primarily published to be sold commercially, as in bookstores.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
Learning of the schools, scholarship; a branch of learning or knowledge, a science, especially one of the ‘seven liberal arts’ of the medieval universities .
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
(countable) A particular instance of buying or selling.
I did no trades with them once the rumors started.
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Craft
(uncountable) Skill, skilfulness, art, especially the skill needed for a particular profession .
The craft of writing plays.
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Trade
(countable) An instance of bartering items in exchange for one another.
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Craft
A branch of skilled work or trade, especially one requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill, but sometimes applied equally to any business, calling or profession; the skilled practice of a practical occupation .
The carpenter's craft.
He learned his craft as an apprentice.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
(countable) Those who perform a particular kind of skilled work.
The skilled trades were the first to organize modern labor unions.
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Craft
(countable) A trade or profession as embodied in its practitioners collectively; the members of a trade or handicraft as a body; an association of these; a trade's union, guild, or ‘company’ .
She represented the craft of brewers.
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Trade
(countable) Those engaged in an industry or group of related industries.
It is not a retail showroom. It is only for the trade.
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Craft
A vehicle designed for navigation in or on water or air or through outer space .
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Trade
(countable) The skilled practice of a practical occupation.
He learned his trade as an apprentice.
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Craft
(nautical) Boats, especially of smaller size than ships. Historically primarily applied to vessels engaged in loading or unloading of other vessels, as lighters, hoys, and barges.
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Trade
An occupation in the secondary sector, as opposed to an agricultural, professional or military one.
After failing his entrance exams, he decided to go into a trade.
Most veterans went into trade when the war ended.
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Craft
Those vessels attendant on a fleet, such as cutters, schooners, and gun-boats, generally commanded by lieutenants.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers.
Even before noon there was considerable trade.
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Trade
Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator.
They rode the trades going west.
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Craft
Implements used in catching fish, such as net, line, or hook. Modern use primarily in whaling, as in harpoons, hand-lances, etc. .
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Trade
(only as plural) A publication intended for participants in an industry or related group of industries.
Rumors about layoffs are all over the trades.
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Trade
A masculine man available for casual sex with men, often for pay. (Compare rough trade.)
Josh picked up some trade last night.
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Craft
To construct, develop something (like a skilled craftsman).
State crafting; the process of crafting global policing
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Craft
(video games) To combine multiple items to form a new item, such as armour or medicine.
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Craft
Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade.
Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making.
Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations,Has the craft of the smith been held in repute.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers.
The control of trade passed from the merchant guilds to the new craft guilds.
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Trade
(ambitransitive) To engage in trade.
This company trades (in) precious metal.
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Craft
Cunning, art, or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit or shrewd devices.
You have that crooked wisdom which is called craft.
The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions.
Apple is trading at $200.
ExxonMobil trades on the NYSE.
The stock is trading rich relative to its sector.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
A vessel; vessels of any kind; - generally used in a collective sense.
The evolutions of the numerous tiny craft moving over the lake.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To give (something) in exchange (for).
Will you trade your precious watch for my earring?
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Trade
(transitive) To mutually exchange (something) (with).
The rival schoolboys traded insults.
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Craft
The skilled practice of a practical occupation;
He learned his trade as an apprentice
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Craft
A vehicle designed for navigation in or on water or air or through outer space
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Trade
(ambitransitive) To do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
People who perform a particular kind of skilled work;
He represented the craft of brewers
As they say in the trade
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Trade
(intransitive) To have dealings; to be concerned or associated (with).
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Trade
Of a product, produced for sale in the ordinary bulk retail trade and hence of only the most basic quality.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
Make by hand and with much skill;
The artisan crafted a complicated tool
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
A track; a trail; a way; a path; also, passage; travel; resort.
A postern with a blind wicket there was,A common trade to pass through Priam's house.
Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade.
Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway,Some way of common trade, where subjects' feetMay hourly trample on their sovereign's head.
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Oct 19, 2023
Craft
An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill.
His craft as a carpenter was evident in the beautiful furniture he made.
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Nov 13, 2023
Trade
Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment.
There those five sisters had continual trade.
Long did I love this lady,Long was my travel, long my trade to win her.
Thy sin's not accidental but a trade.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
Business of any kind; matter of mutual consideration; affair; dealing.
Have you any further trade with us?
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Trade
Specifically: The act or business of exchanging commodities by barter, or by buying and selling for money; commerce; traffic; barter.
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Trade
The business which a person has learned, and which he engages in, for procuring subsistence, or for profit; occupation; especially, mechanical employment as distinguished from the liberal arts, the learned professions, and agriculture; as, we speak of the trade of a smith, of a carpenter, or mason, but not now of the trade of a farmer, or a lawyer, or a physician.
Accursed usury was all his trade.
The homely, slighted, shepherd's trade.
I will instruct thee in my trade.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
Instruments of any occupation.
The house and household goods, his trade of war.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
A company of men engaged in the same occupation; thus, booksellers and publishers speak of the customs of the trade, and are collectively designated as the trade.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To barter, or to buy and sell; to be engaged in the exchange, purchase, or sale of goods, wares, merchandise, or anything else; to traffic; to bargain; to carry on commerce as a business.
A free port, where nations . . . resorted with their goods and traded.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To have dealings; to be concerned or associated; - usually followed by with.
How did you dare to trade and traffic with Macbeth?
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
To sell or exchange in commerce; to barter.
They traded the persons of men.
To dicker and to swop, to trade rifles and watches.
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
The commercial exchange (buying and selling on domestic or international markets) of goods and services;
Venice was an important center of trade with the East
They are accused of conspiring to constrain trade
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
People who perform a particular kind of skilled work;
He represented the craft of brewers
As they say in the trade
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Trade
The skilled practice of a practical occupation;
He learned his trade as an apprentice
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Trade
A particular instance of buying or selling;
It was a package deal
I had no further trade with him
He's a master of the business deal
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers;
Even before noon there was a considerable patronage
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator;
They rode the trade winds going west
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Trade
Turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase;
Trade in an old car for a new one
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Trade
Be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions;
The stock traded around $20 a share
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Trade
Do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood;
She deals in gold
The brothers sell shoes
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Oct 19, 2023
Trade
Relating to or used in or intended for trade or commerce;
A trade fair
Trade journals
Trade goods
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Trade
The action of buying, selling, or exchanging goods and services.
He works in the trade of exotic spices.
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Nov 13, 2023
Trade
A skilled job, typically one requiring manual skills and special training.
She pursued a trade in plumbing.
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Trade
The business of buying and selling stocks, shares, or currency.
His day was consumed by trade on the stock market.
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Trade
The exchange of something for something else.
The two countries entered into a trade agreement.
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Trade
Buying and selling of goods and services on a large scale.
International trade is a major component of the global economy.
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Repeatedly Asked Queries
Is trade only about physical goods?
No, trade also includes services and intangibles like stocks.
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Does trade always involve money?
Mostly, but bartering goods and services is also a form of trade.
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Nov 13, 2023
Can craft be a profession?
Yes, many people professionally engage in crafting.
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Nov 13, 2023
Are crafts always handmade?
Typically, but some crafts may use machines for assistance.
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What is the primary focus of craft?
Craft focuses on handmade artistry and skill.
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Can craft be considered an art form?
Yes, many crafts are also regarded as art.
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Is international trade different from domestic trade?
Yes, international trade often involves additional factors like tariffs.
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Is there a difference between trade and commerce?
Trade refers specifically to the exchange of goods and services, while commerce encompasses a broader range of business activities.
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Are all crafts traditional?
Not necessarily, crafts can be traditional or modern.
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Can crafts be learned formally?
Yes, through apprenticeships or formal education.
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What are the benefits of international trade?
International trade can lead to economic growth, access to a wider range of products, and increased competition.
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What is the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
The WTO is an international organization that regulates global trade and promotes trade liberalization.
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Are craft skills considered an art form?
Craft skills can be regarded as both artistic and practical, depending on the context.
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Is trade essential for an economy?
Yes, trade is a crucial component of economic systems.
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Does trade require special skills?
It often requires business acumen and negotiation skills.
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Can crafts be contemporary and innovative?
Absolutely, contemporary crafts often blend traditional techniques with modern design and materials.
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Nov 13, 2023
Can crafts be a hobby or a profession?
Crafts can be pursued as a hobby or a full-time profession, depending on the individual's interests and skills.
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Nov 13, 2023
Can trade occur at different scales?
Yes, trade can range from local barter exchanges to multinational trade agreements.
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Do crafts often involve using traditional materials and tools?
Yes, many crafts utilize traditional materials and tools, although modern variations also exist.
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Are there cultural or regional variations in craft traditions?
Yes, different cultures and regions have unique craft traditions that reflect their history and heritage.
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Nov 13, 2023
Can trade be both physical and digital?
Yes, trade includes the exchange of physical goods as well as digital products and services.
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Nov 13, 2023
What are trade barriers?
Trade barriers are obstacles like tariffs, quotas, and regulations that can restrict or hinder international trade.
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Nov 13, 2023
Can crafts be both functional and decorative?
Yes, crafts can serve practical purposes or be purely decorative in nature.
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Nov 13, 2023
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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