Words · Meanings · Passages
Traherne Lexicon
A Reader’s Companion to Centuries of Meditations
471 entries · 0 subsidiary termsEntries
109–144 of 471
Creature
A creature is something created.
Centuries of Meditations
Cross
The Cross is the instrument of Christ's execution and, by transfer, His suffering and redemptive self-offering.
Centuries of Meditations
Crown
A crown may be a royal headpiece, a mark of honour, the completion of an excellence, or an English coin.
Centuries of Meditations
Curious
Curious may mean finely or exquisitely made, ingenious, choice, or delicate; it can also describe an eager investigator.
Centuries of Meditations
Custom
Custom is an acquired way of thinking or acting, maintained by repetition and social agreement.
Centuries of Meditations
Darius and Zopyrus
Darius is the Persian king and Zopyrus the loyal servant of the classical exemplum retold here.
Centuries of Meditations
Darkness
Darkness can be the absence of visible light, the concealment of something from understanding, or a moral condition opposed to divine illumination.
Centuries of Meditations
David
David is the biblical king and the exemplary voice Traherne hears in the Psalms.
Centuries of Meditations
Day
Day names the illuminated portion of ordinary time, a complete daily circuit, or a figurative duration.
Centuries of Meditations
Death
Death includes bodily dissolution, the privation associated with sin, and above all Christ’s dying on the cross.
Centuries of Meditations
Deed and work
Work names both activity and what activity produces.
Centuries of Meditations
Delight
Delight is pleasurable satisfaction in an object; transitively, to delight is to give such pleasure to someone else.
Centuries of Meditations
Deordination
Deordination is a rare theological word for departure from right order or a state of disorder.
Centuries of Meditations
Desert and merit
Desert is what someone or something deserves; merit can name excellence calling for due acknowledgement.
Centuries of Meditations
Desire
Desire is an inclination toward a good not yet possessed or fully apprehended.
Centuries of Meditations
Devil
A devil is an evil spiritual being, contrasted with an angel and associated with opposition to divine love.
Centuries of Meditations
Devotion
Devotion names a dedicated religious disposition and its expression in worship.
Centuries of Meditations
Dignity
Dignity can mean intrinsic excellence, honourable standing, or an elevated office.
Centuries of Meditations
Diligence
Diligence is careful, persistent exertion.
Centuries of Meditations
Discontent
Discontent is the troubled sense that one’s condition or possessions do not suffice.
Centuries of Meditations
Divaricated
Divaricated means spread apart, branching out, or splayed.
Centuries of Meditations
Divine grace
Grace can mean freely bestowed favour or divine assistance, and in theological classification it names humanity’s restored condition through redemption.
Centuries of Meditations
Divine spirit
Daemon here is a spirit with a mediating role, not a devil or an evil possessing force.
Centuries of Meditations
Documents
Documents here are lessons, teachings, or instructions.
Centuries of Meditations
Dominion
Dominion is authority or rule over a domain.
Centuries of Meditations
Dreadful
Dreadful can mean awe-inspiring, solemnly majestic, or fearfully great.
Centuries of Meditations
Dream
Dream may mean an imagined possibility or something fleeting, insubstantial, or falsely satisfying.
Centuries of Meditations
Dust
Dust names the ordinary, low-valued material of the street.
Centuries of Meditations
Duty
Duty is an act or disposition owed in a relationship.
Centuries of Meditations
Earth
Earth can mean the ground that produces living things, the terrestrial region beneath the heavens, or the inhabited world offered to human enjoyment.
Centuries of Meditations
Eden
Eden is the garden of the first human life in Genesis.
Centuries of Meditations
Education
Education is the shaping of a person’s powers and valuations through teaching, example, conversation, and habitual surroundings.
Centuries of Meditations
Effusion
An effusion is a pouring forth.
Centuries of Meditations
Element
An element is a basic constituent of the bodily world within the inherited vocabulary of natural philosophy.
Centuries of Meditations
Emergencies
Emergencies are events as they emerge or occur.
Centuries of Meditations
Eminence
By way of eminence means in a higher, more excellent manner.
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.