What is “the word known to all men” in Ulysses?
“The word known to all men” is a phrase Stephen asks about in Episodes 3, 9 and 15. In Circe he begs his dead mother's ghost to tell it to him. In the corrected text, Episode 9 answers it: the word is love.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Several episodes. Stephen, confronted by his mother's ghost in Bella Cohen's brothel.
Tell me the word, mother, if you know now. The word known to all men.
What it means in plain English
Stephen's mother died a year before the novel begins. He refused her dying wish that he kneel and pray, and the guilt haunts him all day.
In Circe her ghost appears. Stephen asks her for the word. She does not give it; she tells him to repent. He refuses and smashes the lamp.
In Episode 9 of this edition Stephen thinks, “Love, yes. Word known to all men.” That line was missing from older editions and was restored in 1984.
Literary context
The phrase first appears in Proteus, where Stephen writes a poem on the beach and thinks “What is that word known to all men?”
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 3, 9 and 15
- Ulysses: The Corrected Text, ed. Hans Walter Gabler (1984)
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What is the word known to all men?
In the corrected text it is love. In the 1922 edition the question is never directly answered.
Who asks for the word?
Stephen Dedalus, speaking to the ghost of his mother in Circe.
Related terms
The Gabler edition
The Gabler edition, “Ulysses: The Corrected Text” (1984), was edited by Hans Walter Gabler, who rebuilt the text from Joyce's manuscripts and proofs and made about 5,000 corrections. The most famous restores a line about love in Episode 9.
Non serviam
“Non serviam” is Latin for “I will not serve”, the words traditionally given to Lucifer when he rebelled against God. Stephen shouts it at his mother's ghost in Circe, refusing again to kneel and pray. It is his defiance in its purest form.
Nothung
Nothung is the magic sword in Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Stephen cries “Nothung!” in Circe as he raises his ashplant, like a sword, and smashes the brothel's chandelier to drive away his mother's ghost.
Agenbite of inwit
"Agenbite of inwit" is Middle English for "remorse of conscience" (literally the "again-bite" of the "inner wit"). It comes from the title of a 14th-century religious book. In Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus repeats it to himself because he feels guilty for refusing to pray at his dying mother's bedside.