Words that Shakespeare Invented

William Shakespeare invented over 1700 words now commonly used in the English language.  That is staggering.  He changed nouns into verbs, added prefixes and suffixes to existing words, connected words that had never before been used together and some were completely new.  Words such as assassination, besmirch, buzzer, dauntless, bedazzled and lonely as well as phrases such as 'A plague on both your houses' (Romeo and Juliet), 'Be-all and the end-all' (Macbeth) appear throughout his 38 plays, 154 sonnets, narrative poems and various verses.

He was familiar with seven foreign languages and had the largest vocabulary of any writer, either before or since, at 24,000 words.

Whether or not you join in with the 'authorship doubters' this is an amazing feat for anyone and for schools and universities to now - after 400 years - still be studying his work is incredible.