Carpentry vs. Millwork — What's the Difference?

Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry.

Millwork is historically any wood mill produced decorative materials used in building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by milling at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alteration.

The work or trade of a carpenter.

Woodwork, such as doors, window casings, and baseboards, ready-made by a lumber mill.

Woodwork done by a carpenter

(US) Any wooden object manufactured at a lumbermill (sawmill).

(uncountable) The trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures; woodworking.

Most especially, doors, windows, and wood trim with decorative cross-section involving curves, beads, grooves, etc.

(countable) A carpenter's workshop.

The shafting, gearing, and other driving machinery of mills.

(uncountable) A collection of timber connected by being framed together, as the pieces of a roof, floor, etc.; work done by a carpenter.

The business of setting up or of operating mill machinery.

The art of cutting, framing, and joining timber, as in the construction of buildings.

Woodwork that has been machined at a mill

An assemblage of pieces of timber connected by being framed together, as the pieces of a roof, floor, etc.; work done by a carpenter.

The craft of a carpenter: making things out of wood