King Lear: Act 3

by William Shakespeare
In this tragedy, King Lear's plan to divide his kingdom between his three daughters leads to his downfall when he misjudges their true feelings. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5
15 words 1334 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. impetuous
    marked by violent force
    Contending with the fretful elements;
    Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea
    Or swell the curlèd waters ’bove the main,
    That things might change or cease; tears his white hair,
    Which the impetuous blasts with eyeless rage
    Catch in their fury and make nothing of;
    Strives in his little world of man to outscorn
    The to-and-fro conflicting wind and rain.
    Impetuous can also mean "characterized by undue haste and lack of thought" (a synonym for rash). This would make the battle between Lear and Mother Nature seem almost like justice because a rash man is being thrashed by a rash wind. But in the example sentence, the words blasts, rage and fury connect to violence and to the idea of an impetus, which is a force that moves something (e.g. Lear's white hairs) along.
  2. rotundity
    the roundness of a 3-dimensional object
    You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
    Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
    Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking thunder,
    Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.
  3. pernicious
    working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
    Here I stand your slave,
    A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
    But yet I call you servile ministers,
    That will with two pernicious daughters join
    Your high-engendered battles ’gainst a head
    So old and white as this.
  4. covert
    secret or hidden
    Caitiff, to pieces shake,
    That under covert and convenient seeming
    Has practiced on man’s life.
  5. heretic
    a person whose religious beliefs conflict with church dogma
    When nobles are their tailors’ tutors,
    No heretics burned but wenches’ suitors,
    When every case in law is right,
    No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
    ...
    Then shall the realm of Albion
    Come to great confusion.
  6. malady
    any unwholesome or desperate condition
    But where the greater malady is fix'd,
    The lesser is scarce felt.
  7. filial
    relating to or characteristic of or befitting an offspring
    ...filial ingratitude!
    Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand
    For lifting food to ’t? But I will punish home.
  8. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    Who gives anything to Poor Tom, whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o’er bog and quagmire...
  9. injunction
    a formal command or admonition
    My duty cannot suffer
    T’ obey in all your daughters’ hard commands.
    Though their injunction be to bar my doors
    And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you,
    Yet have I ventured to come seek you out
    And bring you where both fire and food is ready.
  10. importune
    beg persistently and urgently
    Importune him once more to go, my lord.
  11. censure
    rebuke formally
    How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to loyalty, something fears me to think of.
    Edmund is pretending to be afraid of censure in order to get Cornwall's trust and protection. But the consequences of Edmund's betrayals will be a lot harsher than a formal rebuke. In the example sentence, nature does not refer to either Mother Nature or Edmund's nature; it refers to the natural bond between a father and a child which, as Gloucester's illegitimate second son, Edmund never felt and has no trouble betraying in order to get what he thinks he deserves.
  12. dally
    waste time
    Take up thy master.
    If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life,
    With thine and all that offer to defend him,
    Stand in assurèd loss.
  13. defile
    place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
    Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray
    When false opinion, whose wrong thoughts defile thee,
    In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.
  14. reconcile
    bring into consonance or accord
    Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray
    When false opinion, whose wrong thoughts defile thee,
    In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee.
  15. pinion
    restrain or bind
    Go seek the traitor Gloucester.
    Pinion him like a thief; bring him before us.
Created on Sat Feb 09 22:21:47 EST 2013 (updated Mon Aug 11 14:40:35 EDT 2025)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.