A Shakespeare Glossary

Reading Shakespeare is rewarding, interesting, and challenging, but there is no question that it can be difficult. English vocabulary has changed greatly since the 1600s, and it is hard for a modern reader to understand all the nuances. Early Modern English is close enough to ours, that the shape of the story is apparent, but the precise meaning is hard to parse. Which is a shame, because one of the rewards of reading Shakespeare is understanding just how exact his word choice is. Our tool lets you paste any passage of Shakespeare in and identifies words that have changed meaning over time, along with ones that are archaic, and then defines them for you. 

Glossary

Our tool is under construction and will return in a few day.