Shakespeare - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Shake·speare

Audio Help [sheyk-speer] Pronunciation Key

–noun

William, 1564–1616, English poet and dramatist.

Also, Shakspere, Shakespear.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Shakespeare

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Shake·speare Audio Help (shāk'spîr) Pronunciation Key
English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in English literature. His plays, many of which were performed at the Globe Theater in London, include historical works, such as Richard II, comedies, including Much Ado about Nothing and As You Like It, and tragedies, such as Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. He also composed 154 sonnets. The earliest collected edition of his plays, the First Folio, contained 36 plays and was published posthumously (1623).

Shake·spear'e·an, Shake·spear'i·an adj. & n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Shakespeare

surname recorded from 1248, and means "a spearman." This was a common type of Eng. surname, e.g. Shakelance (1275), Shakeshaft (1332). Shake in the sense of "to brandish or flourish (a weapon)" is attested from late O.E.

Heo scæken on heore honden speren swiðe stronge."[Laymon, "Brut," c. 1205]

"Never a name in English nomenclature so simple or so certain in origin. It is exactly what it looks -- Shakespear." [Bardsley, "Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames," 1901] Nevertheless, speculation flourishes.

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