Key vocabulary for studying Macbeth at KS3 and GCSE. Understanding these words helps with language analysis questions.
| Word / Phrase | Meaning and Context |
|---|---|
| vaulting ambition | Ambition that overreaches itself — that leaps too far and falls. Macbeth uses this image to describe his own ambition. "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition." |
| equivocate | To use ambiguous language to avoid commitment to the truth. The witches equivocate constantly. |
| tyrant | A cruel and oppressive ruler. Macbeth becomes a tyrant in the second half of the play. |
| apparition | A ghost or other supernatural appearance. Macbeth sees three apparitions when he revisits the witches. |
| soliloquy | A speech given by a character alone on stage, revealing their inner thoughts. Macbeth's soliloquies are among the most important in Shakespeare. |
| tragic flaw | In tragedy, the quality in a hero's character that brings about their downfall. Macbeth's tragic flaw is ambition. |