Throughout the discourse some key terms are repeated:
- Sowing (Mark 4:3–4, Mark 4:4, Mark 4:15–20 Mark 4:31–32) 
- Word (Mark 4:14–20, Mark 4:33) 
- Seed (Mark 4:4–5, Mark 4:7–8, Mark 4:15–16, Mark 4:18, Mark 4:20, Mark 4:26–27, Mark 4:31) 
- Soil (Mark 4:1, Mark 4:5, Mark 4:8, Mark 4:20, Mark 4:26, Mark 4:28, Mark 4:31) 
- Kingdom of God (Mark 4:11, Mark 4:26, Mark 4:30) 
- Hear (Mark 4:3, Mark 4:9, Mark 4:12, Mark 4:15–16, Mark 4:18, Mark 4:20, Mark 4:23–24, Mark 4:33) 
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.