Words · Meanings · Passages
Traherne Lexicon
A Reader’s Companion to Centuries of Meditations
471 entries · 0 subsidiary termsTerms beginning with M
1–23 of 23
Magnanimous
Magnanimous means great-souled, generous in disposition, and capable of noble purposes.
Centuries of Meditations
Magnificence
Magnificence joins greatness of scale with splendour and generosity.
Centuries of Meditations
Malice
Malice is actively hostile feeling or ill will.
Centuries of Meditations
Marriage
Marriage denotes the union of spouses.
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Matter
Matter can mean material substance, the subject of discourse, or the business that occupies attention.
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Measure
Measure can be extent, the act of comprehending an extent, or a standard that determines the adequacy of something else.
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Medicine
Physic means medicine or a medicinal treatment; a physician practises it.
Centuries of Meditations
Meditation and contemplation
Meditation is sustained, purposeful thought that draws its object into the active life of the soul.
Centuries of Meditations
Meekness
Meekness is a restrained and gentle disposition, especially under provocation.
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Memory
Memory preserves what is absent from present sensation and makes it available to thought.
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Mercy
Mercy is beneficent concern for need or misery.
Centuries of Meditations
Microcosm
Microcosm, or little world, is a conventional name for the conception of humanity as gathering the kinds and powers of the larger creation within itself.
Centuries of Meditations
Mind
Mind names the inward power and disposition of thought.
Centuries of Meditations
Minister
To minister is to serve or supply what is needed.
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Miracle
A miracle is an extraordinary work or wonder.
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Mirror
A mirror receives and returns an image or light.
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Misery
Misery is wretchedness or an unfulfilled condition.
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Mistake
A mistake is an erroneous apprehension or application.
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Monuments
A monument may be a commemorative structure, but monuments can also be records or writings that preserve knowledge.
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Moses
Moses is the scriptural leader of Israel.
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Motion
Motion includes bodily movement and, by extension, the activity of affection or inward response.
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Music
Music denotes ordered sound and the art that produces it.
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Mystery
Mystery is a truth or divine purpose previously hidden or not yet rightly understood.
Centuries of Meditations
About this collection
October 2026
Centuries of Meditations · Thomas Traherne
About this collection and downloads
471 contextual articles from the complete Centuries of Meditations, with 410 numbered positions, including the editorial notice at II.88 and the unfinished Fifth Century ending at V.10.
A companion for reading
This lexicon accompanies Thomas Traherne's Centuries of Meditations in the Diotimos Editions annotated edition of 2026. Its 471 articles explain the book's characteristic words, recurrent images, scriptural figures and habits of argument. They range from everyday things, such as air, corn and water, to the governing ideas of felicity, enjoyment, love, infinity and possession. The scope is the complete work: four numbered Centuries followed by the unfinished Fifth. The numbering runs through 410 positions, but there are 409 actual meditations. At II.88 the Diotimos edition prints only an editorial notice: its explanatory note says that Traherne skipped that number, with no missing text. The Fifth Century ends at V.10.
Traherne repeatedly gives familiar words unfamiliar work. To enjoy is to enter into delighted possession; a want can disclose a capacity; a common thing can be a greater treasure than a rarity. These senses are best learned by returning to the passages where they operate. The lexicon therefore offers interpretation alongside lexical explanation. It does not replace continuous reading, and a cross-reference is an invitation to compare, not a claim that two words mean the same thing.
The articles are arranged alphabetically. Traherne wrote in English, so the line beneath each headword gives English forms and useful equivalents. Related forms and less prominent senses can be found through the lexical index. Longer articles make room for the distinctions that carry the argument; shorter ones explain a particular image, older usage or local difficulty.
How to read an entry
The word identifies the sense that matters here, including older uses that a modern reader might miss. In Traherne follows the word or idea through the Centuries. This is a reading of the cited passages, not a set of definitions attributed to Traherne. Some articles include additional named discussions where a central concept needs more space.
The places gives selected, annotated references. These are guides to fruitful reading, not exhaustive concordances. In this edition points out a lexical, spelling or editorial issue that affects interpretation. See also links to other articles. The source note attached to the forms line records the textual basis of the article. Headwords sometimes normalize an inflected form or name a clearly present idea; the article states the relation to the wording of the text.
Three indexes supplement the alphabetical sequence. The Lexical forms and aliases index helps readers find related English forms and expressions. The Passage index leads from a cited meditation to the articles that discuss it. The Thematic index groups connected readings without imposing a single system on the book. These indexes are linked in the digital editions.
References and textual conventions
References take the form I.3, meaning the First Century, meditation 3; V.10 is the last surviving meditation. Links lead to the corresponding meditation in the book. Century and meditation numbers remain the stable references across formats.
The underlying text is the Diotimos edition, which identifies Bertram Dobell's 1908 edition and its public-domain transcription as its copy-text and describes manuscript-based corrections. Its introduction, explanatory footnotes and other 2026 material are editorial apparatus, not Traherne's prose. An article that uses a modern explanatory note identifies it as such. Historical definitions here are contextual reading glosses; no independent dictionary, manuscript collation or scholarly edition is silently claimed as a source.
Short quotations retain the wording of the annotated edition. Its original capitalization can be rhetorically significant without making every capitalized word a technical term. Brackets and struck-through readings in the source belong to that edition's textual presentation and should not be confused with new words supplied by this lexicon. Biblical phrases and inherited images are discussed as Traherne deploys them; the articles do not turn an allusion into proof of a particular unmentioned source.