diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a53b0a8b4ab1236e592206b087716194cf2bfa5e..9d10cd8d922da61f3cce96c852d3e3c5a05a405e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,13 @@
 PROJECT(Corpus2Library)
+
+set(corpus2_ver_major "1")
+set(corpus2_ver_minor "0")
+set(corpus2_ver_patch "12")
+
+add_definitions(-DLIBCORPUS2_VERSION_MAJOR=${corpus2_ver_major})
+add_definitions(-DLIBCORPUS2_VERSION_MINOR=${corpus2_ver_minor})
+add_definitions(-DLIBCORPUS2_VERSION_PATCH=${corpus2_ver_patch})
+
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.0)
 
 # use some of our own Find* scripts
diff --git a/corpus2tools/tagset-tool.cpp b/corpus2tools/tagset-tool.cpp
index f20389e9749ffc5f427ae660721da8e1441bfa7e..7968b788092b09684005fc6ab5346f98e1e2d970 100644
--- a/corpus2tools/tagset-tool.cpp
+++ b/corpus2tools/tagset-tool.cpp
@@ -223,6 +223,7 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 			("sort,s", value(&sort)->zero_tokens(),
 			 "Sort parsed tags")
 			("help,h", "Show help")
+			("version", "print version string")
 			;
 	boost::program_options::variables_map vm;
 	boost::program_options::positional_options_description p;
@@ -244,6 +245,10 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 		std::cout << Corpus2::available_tagsets() << "\n";
 		return 1;
 	}
+	if (vm.count("version")) {
+		std::cout << "tagset-tool (libcorpus2) " << Corpus2::version_string() << "\n";
+		return 0;
+	}
 
 	Corpus2::Path::Instance().set_verbose(!quiet);
 
diff --git a/libcorpus2/CMakeLists.txt b/libcorpus2/CMakeLists.txt
index b02207e9f34658d1d410e1411ce54179ad70efbd..4c2be81282c0caa11820b360d45ce41ca479e024 100644
--- a/libcorpus2/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/libcorpus2/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 ########## libcorpus2 ###############
 PROJECT(corpus2)
 
-set(corpus2_ver_major "1")
-set(corpus2_ver_minor "0")
-set(corpus2_ver_patch "12")
-
-
 if(NOT LIBCORPUS2_SRC_DATA_DIR)
 	message(FATAL_ERROR "There is no data for libcorpus2")
 endif(NOT LIBCORPUS2_SRC_DATA_DIR)
diff --git a/libcorpus2/util/settings.cpp b/libcorpus2/util/settings.cpp
index bfa5c33042c8dba4e51b28f1502fa5c7b70fe706..c6c73093e6ff76631bb6cb985ff3d359723a9861 100644
--- a/libcorpus2/util/settings.cpp
+++ b/libcorpus2/util/settings.cpp
@@ -24,8 +24,17 @@ or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 #define LIBCORPUS2_PATH_SEPARATOR ":"
 #endif
 
+#include <sstream>
+
 namespace Corpus2 {
 
+const std::string version_string()
+{
+	std::stringstream version;
+	version << version_major << "." << version_minor << "." << version_patch;
+	return version.str();
+}
+
 Corpus2PathSearcher::Corpus2PathSearcher()
 	: PwrNlp::PathSearcher<FileNotFound>(LIBCORPUS2_PATH_SEPARATOR)
 {
diff --git a/libcorpus2/util/settings.h b/libcorpus2/util/settings.h
index 1dd57722b0e53d07c9d81bacd59b3360a2d4780c..e952a70a7f2cb1a9cff2362a6cb154cbbc10427f 100644
--- a/libcorpus2/util/settings.h
+++ b/libcorpus2/util/settings.h
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 
 namespace Corpus2 {
 
+const int version_major = (LIBCORPUS2_VERSION_MAJOR);
+const int version_minor = (LIBCORPUS2_VERSION_MINOR);
+const int version_patch = (LIBCORPUS2_VERSION_PATCH);
+
+const std::string version_string();
+
 class Corpus2PathSearcher : public PwrNlp::PathSearcher<FileNotFound>
 {
 public: