Vocabulary in Macbeth

Wicked, evil, or morally corrupt. In this play it describes what is dark and sinister, set against what appears good or beautiful.

A natural tendency toward compassion and mercy. Lady Macbeth uses it to mean Macbeth is too gentle and soft-hearted to seize power by ruthless means.

To take the most direct route to a goal, even if it means doing something wrong or violent. Here it refers to murdering the king to gain the throne immediately.

A contraction of 'it were,' an archaic form meaning 'it would be.' Used in conditional or hypothetical statements in Early Modern English.

A wide, open stretch of wild, uncultivated land, typically covered with low shrubs. In the play it is the bleak outdoor setting where the Witches gather.

A Scottish nobleman who holds land granted by the king and owes him military service. It is a rank below the king but above ordinary soldiers.

To turn something a deep crimson or blood-red color. Macbeth uses it to say his guilty hand would stain the entire ocean red rather than be washed clean.

Existing in vast, countless numbers. Here it emphasizes the immense, seemingly infinite expanse of all the world's oceans combined.

The Roman god of the sea, invoked here as a way of referring to all the oceans of the world. Macbeth uses the name to suggest no amount of seawater could wash away his guilt.

To grasp or seize something tightly with the hand. Macbeth reaches for the phantom dagger but finds he cannot grip it because it is a hallucination.

In this condition or position — specifically, being king. Macbeth means that simply holding the crown is worthless unless his hold on power is also secure.

Tiresome and taking too long; not worth the effort. Macbeth uses it to say that going back to innocence would be just as wearisome as pressing forward in evil.

To walk through something that resists movement, like deep water. Macbeth uses it as a metaphor for being so deep in bloodshed that stopping is no easier than continuing.

Driven away or ruined something that was present. Here it means Macbeth's wild behavior has destroyed the cheerful mood of the royal banquet.

Causing wonder or astonishment, in the older sense of the word. The phrase 'most admired disorder' means behavior so strange it leaves everyone speechless with amazement.

Firmly determined and unwilling to back down, especially in the face of danger. The Witches urge Macbeth to act with bold, unshakeable decisiveness.

Open contempt or mockery; treating something as beneath notice. To 'laugh to scorn' means to dismiss a threat as laughably unworthy of fear.

A mother, used here of animals or, contemptuously, of a human mother. Macduff uses it to lament that his wife and all his children have been killed together.

Fierce, savage, and deadly. In 'one fell swoop' it describes a single act of brutal, merciless violence that destroys everything at once.

In a single sudden and savage stroke, destroying everything at once. The phrase captures the speed and totality of the attack on Macduff's family.

Small, trivial, and insignificant. Macbeth uses it to describe the slow, meaningless crawl of time, day after day, leading nowhere worth going.

The smallest unit of spoken sound in a word. Macbeth uses it metaphorically to suggest that even the tiniest fragment of time has been recorded, and all of it is empty.

An imaginary bloodstain that Lady Macbeth believes she can see on her hand while sleepwalking. It represents her overwhelming guilt over the murders she helped plan.

A shield carried into battle as a symbol of a warrior's readiness to fight to the death. Macbeth throws it before him as a final defiant gesture of military courage.