Shakespeare

Syllables: Shake·speare/ˈʃeɪkspɪə/US/ˈʃeɪkspɪɹ/

Shakespeare proper noun: a surname.

Image: Attributed to John Taylor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Shakespeare (countable and uncountable, plural Shakespeares)

A surname.
- The name Shakespeare occurs from the 13th century on in the records of various English counties. The first Shakespeare as yet discovered in Warwickshire is one Thomas, a felon, who fled from the law in 1359. Toward the end of the fourteenth century there were landed Shakespeares at Baddesley, and...1913, Katharine Lee Bates, Lilla Weed, compilers, Shakespeare: Selective Bibliography and Biographical Notes, [Wellesley, Mass.]: Wellesley College, page 33
1. William Shakespeare, an English playwright and poet of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
(metonymically) William Shakespeare's works or media adaptations of his works.
- He is reading Shakespeare.
- I'm surprised that even the allusion to Hamlet flew over his head. Even someone who barely knows Shakespeare might catch that one!
A village in Perth East township, Ontario, Canada, named after the playwright.
A ghost town in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States.

Noun

Shakespeare (countable and uncountable, plural Shakespeares)

(uncountable) Any form or style of language that is eloquent, especially in English; poetry.
- This may not be poetry, but in competition with "Ryan has good velocity and excellent location" it is pure Shakespeare.1979 October 10, Russell Maker, “Highbrows Ruin Baseball's Language”, in Toledo Blade
(countable) A playwright of the standing of William Shakespeare.
- Caine, he said, might be a budding Shakespeare but in Shakespeare's time all it took to put on a play was a barn, a crude stage, […]1997, Vivien Allen, Hall Caine: portrait of a Victorian romancer

Verb

Shakespeare (third-person singular simple present Shakespeares, present participle Shakespearing, simple past and past participle Shakespeared)

(intransitive) To act or perform in a play of the works of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

Shakespeare in Hindi

English playwright: शेक्सपीयर śeksapīyar

Shakespeare in Marathi

English playwright: शेक्स्पीयर śekspīyar

Shakespeare in Bengali

English playwright: শেক্সপীয়ার śekśopiẏar

Shakespeare in Malayalam

ഷേക്സ്പിയർ

More languagesFewer languages

Shakespeare in Nepali: शेक्सपियर śeksapiyar
Shakespeare in Arabic: شَكْسْبِير šaksbīr
Shakespeare in Thai: เชกสเปียร์ châyk-sà-bpia
Shakespeare in Vietnamese: Sếch-xpia

Synonyms of Shakespeare

the Bard
Shakey

Forms of Shakespeare

Proper noun
plural	Shakespeares
alternative form (obsolete)	Shakespere
alternative form (obsolete)	Shakspeare
alternative form (obsolete)	Shakspere
Noun
plural	Shakespeares
Verb
third-person singular present	Shakespeares
present participle	Shakespearing
past participle	Shakespeared
past	Shakespeared

Origin of Shakespeare

A common Middle English surname meaning spearman, corresponding to shake (“to brandish a weapon”) + spear.

Questions about Shakespeare

What does Shakespeare mean?: Shakespeare means a surname.
What is Shakespeare in Hindi?: Shakespeare in Hindi is शेक्सपीयर (śeksapīyar). See Shakespeare meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Shakespeare?: Shakespeare can be a proper noun, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce Shakespeare?: Shakespeare is pronounced /ˈʃeɪkspɪɹ/ (US).

Words near Shakespeare in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Shakespeare (page history and authors); shakespeare (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Shakespeare.wav.

Cite this entry: “Shakespeare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shakespeare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.