Essential Vocabulary for Reading Shakespeare
Pronouns, verb forms, directional adverbs, discourse markers, and historically shifted meanings that remove common obstacles in Shakespeare’s text.
A curated Words list.
25 words
English · Experimental / limited support
25 of 30 curated words are in the development corpus.
| Sense and definition | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| be as “art” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 24 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| do as “dost” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 39 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| do as “doth” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 39 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| have as “hast” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 34 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| have as “hath” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 34 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| shall as “shalt” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 4 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| will as “wilt” | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: this word has 8 senses and the entry names none of them. |
| beseech | English | VERB |
No sense selectedNo definition is shown: the meaning this list is about spans several of this word’s 2 senses, so no one of them is it. |
Curated words the sources do not supply
- thine — independent possessive; possessive before a vowel in some usage. Not bound: ambiguous in the pinned sources: The pinned sources record the word as more than one lexeme and the curated cue spans them, so no single binding is correct.
- ere — before. Not bound: ambiguous in the pinned sources: The pinned sources record the word as more than one lexeme and the curated cue spans them, so no single binding is correct.
- prithee — “I pray thee”; please. Not in the pinned sources: The pinned sources do not record the curated form under the curated lemma.
- methinks — it seems to me. Not in the pinned sources: The pinned sources record the curated form-to-lemma relation the other way round.
- fain — gladly; willing. Not bound: ambiguous in the pinned sources: The pinned sources record the word as more than one lexeme and the curated cue spans them, so no single binding is correct.