Shakespeare

American  

[sheyk-speer] / ˈʃeɪk spɪər /

Or Shakspere,

noun

1. William, the Bard of Avon, 1564–1616, English poet and dramatist.

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Shakespeare British  

/ ˈʃeɪkspɪə /

noun

1. William. 1564–1616, English dramatist and poet. He was born and died at Stratford-upon-Avon but spent most of his life as an actor and playwright in London. His plays with approximate dates of composition are: Henry VI, Parts I–III (1590); Richard III (1592); The Comedy of Errors (1592); Titus Andronicus (1593); The Taming of the Shrew (1593); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594); Love's Labour's Lost (1594); Romeo and Juliet (1594); Richard II (1595); A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595); King John (1596); The Merchant of Venice (1596); Henry IV, Parts I–II (1597); Much Ado about Nothing (1598); Henry V (1598); Julius Caesar (1599); As You Like It (1599); Twelfth Night (1599); Hamlet (1600); The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600); Troilus and Cressida (1601); All's Well that ends Well (1602); Measure for Measure (1604); Othello (1604); King Lear (1605); Macbeth (1605); Antony and Cleopatra (1606); Coriolanus (1607); Timon of Athens (1607); Pericles (1608); Cymbeline (1609); The Winter's Tale (1610); The Tempest (1611); and, possibly in collaboration with John Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen (1612) and Henry VIII (1612). His Sonnets, variously addressed to a fair young man and a dark lady, were published in 1609

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Other Word Forms

• pre-Shakespeare
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Shakespeare

He said he had given more than five decades of service to people in the borough, championed causes close to his constituents and supported major projects including Shakespeare North Playhouse.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival production isn’t going to win awards for subtlety, but the storytelling is crisp and vivid.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

But Shakespeare, who was as wary of rebellion as he was of tyranny, saw the flaws in every faction of society.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Jefferson still had his nose in his books—his dome is based on Palladio’s reconstruction of the Roman temple of Vesta—but he transformed his source material, much as Shakespeare did, to serve his own purposes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

But instead of choosing from the likely suspects—William Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Harriet Tubman—I use my computer to look up the names my grandfather’s been batting around.

From "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm