diff --git a/spacy/typedefs.pyx b/spacy/typedefs.pyx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..00a8b8eea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spacy/typedefs.pyx
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+UNIV_TAG_NAMES = {
+    "NO_TAG": NO_TAG,
+    "ADJ": ADJ,
+    "ADV": ADV,
+    "ADP": ADP,
+    "CONJ": CONJ,
+    "DET": DET,
+    "NOUN": NOUN,
+    "NUM": NUM,
+    "PRON": PRON,
+    "PRT": PRT,
+    "VERB": VERB,
+    "X": X,
+    "PUNCT": PUNCT,
+    "EOL": EOL
+}