Key terms & definitions

Giving money, goods, time or practical help to support people in need; the word can also mean an organisation established to help others.

An organisation established for charitable purposes that benefit the public, such as relieving poverty or protecting children.

A school partly supported by donations to educate children whose families cannot afford the full cost of their education and upkeep.

A nickname for a nightwatchman, including those who patrolled Liverpool’s four districts from 1787.

An object believed to have magical powers.

The ferryman in Greek mythology who carried the dead towards the Underworld; a coin placed at the dead person's mouth served as his payment.

Producing deliberately darkened areas on the surface of food through exposure to intense heat.

A document granting specified rights or privileges, such as permission for a town to hold a market.

Authorised or regulated by a legal charter. In Blake’s poem, the word suggests that public space and even nature are subject to ownership and control.

A business granted a charter by a ruler or government giving it particular trading rights or other privileges.

A nineteenth-century movement that campaigned for the six political reforms set out in the People’s Charter.

Abstaining from sexual activity; in Prospero’s instructions to Ferdinand, it means not having sex before marriage.

Sexual respectability or fidelity as defined by a society; Roman writers often made it central to their judgements of women.

Living according to religious or moral standards for sexual behaviour; in traditional Christian teaching, this includes abstaining from sex before marriage.

Software that responds to users' messages automatically, for example to answer customer enquiries.

A form of slavery in which the law treats enslaved people as property.

A ceremonial whisk waved above the Guru Granth Sahib as a sign of respect.

Using a related calculation, often involving an inverse operation, to test whether an answer is correct.

Arrangements through which institutions oversee and challenge one another, helping to prevent any one institution becoming too powerful.

A value calculated from data and checked at the receiving end to help detect transmission errors.

A fungus deliberately added to certain cheeses to develop their characteristic veining, flavour and texture.

The Bolshevik secret police, established in December 1917 to combat counter-revolution and used to arrest, imprison and execute suspected opponents.

The use of tests or measurements to identify substances or determine how much of a substance is present.

A substance that protects against infection by damaging or killing pathogens.

An attraction that holds atoms or ions together in a substance.

The type of attraction holding atoms or ions together in a substance.

A cell whose stored reactants are used up as it supplies electrical energy; some chemical cells can be recharged.

A change in which one or more new substances are formed by a chemical reaction.

A change that forms one or more new substances with different properties.

A change in which one or more new substances form.