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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. Third person singular present indicative of be.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. The third person singular present indicative of the verb be. See be. The form is was formerly, and is still dialectally, used for all persons of the singular, and in negro speech also for all persons of the plural. Such use in Chaucer, as in modern authors, is in imitation of dialect speech.
  2. An obsolete form of -es.
  3. An obsolete form of -es.
  4. A northern, and especially Scottish, form of -ish, as in Scottis (contracted Scots) for Scottish, Inglis for Inglish (English), etc.
  5. An abbreviation of island.

Wiktionary

  1. v. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of be.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. The third person singular of the substantive verb be, in the indicative mood, present tense. See be.

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English, from Old English is, from Proto-Germanic *isti, a form of Proto-Germanic *wesanan (“to be”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (“is”). Cognate with West Frisian is ("is"), Dutch is ("is"), German ist ("is"), Old Swedish is ("is"). The paradigm of "to be" has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of four originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form "to be" is from *bʰuH- (“to become”). The forms is and am are derived from *h₁es- (“to be”) whereas the form are comes from *iranan (“to rise, be quick, become active”). Lastly, the past forms starting with "w-" such as was and were are from *h₂wes- (“to reside”). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English; see es- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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same context (36)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. e
  2. ilk
  3. at
  4. wyth
  5. cort
  6. Fayre
  7. yow
  1. was
  2. are
  3. alone
  4. when
  5. did
  6. knew
  7. has
  1. way
  2. happened
  3. been
  4. only
  5. says
  6. one
  7. means
  1. well
  2. name
  3. sort
  4. thing
  5. feelings
  6. Time
  7. that
  1. Art
  2. man
  3. be
  4. not
  5. for
  6. and
  7. we
  1. just

rhymes (14)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. His
  2. Liz
  1. Ms
  2. Ms.
  1. biz
  2. chandeliers
  1. fizz
  2. his
  1. ms
  2. quiz
  1. riz
  2. says
  1. whiz
  2. wiz

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. third person indicative singular
  1. false friend
  1. unremarkable
  1. vc
  1. 51

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tagging (2)

Words tagged ‘is’

  1. Istigkeit
  1. xis

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Lists

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Comments

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  • alexz Bill Clinton "It Depends on what the meaning of the word is is"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XT-l-_3y0 Feb 22, 2013

  • tbtabby Means "ice cream" in Norwegian. Jul 13, 2009

  • yarb Damned limey writers taking American jobs! Jan 17, 2008

  • chained_bear On the first few seasons of "MythBusters" (Discovery Channel), the narrator kept saying "The build team are working on..." and it drove me *batshit* crazy. I figured someone must have emailed them about it or they switched writers or something, because they suddenly started going for the subject-verb agreement and saying "the build team is..." Chained_bear happy. Jan 17, 2008

  • reesetee You could make the case either way, yarb. In fact, The Chicago Manual of Style, the guide many U.S. book editors follow, actually maintains that when used in a collective sense, such a noun may take either a singular or plural verb form. The difference depends on whether you want to emphasize the group or the individual members. Examples given: "The ruling majority is unlikely to share power" and "The majority of voters are satisfied" are both correct. The only proviso noted is that the writer keep the verb form consistent for each noun to avoid confusion. So by this standard, if uselessness wanted to, he could make the case for "There are a bunch of kids in the theater," although generally collective nouns take a singular verb in these here parts.

    What say you, sionnach? Any UK editors out there want to weigh in? ;-) Jan 16, 2008

  • yarb Okay, editors and editrices, what about when I'm talking about a team? In the UK, teams are plural. So the England football team are a laughing stock. Arsenal were lucky on the weekend. But in North America, teams are singular, so the Canadian soccer team is a perennial underachiever. The American hockey team isn't any good. To my ears this sounds so, so wrong. But is it?

    Is one of these technically gramatically right and the other wrong, or is this a case of a legitimate transatlantic double standard? Jan 16, 2008

  • reesetee Nah, you don't fail. It does sound funny, but yes, in general collective nouns go with "is." Now, "lot" doesn't follow that. You wouldn't say "A lot of people is going to the concert," for example, but you could say "A lot of antique lamps is going to be auctioned tomorrow" (defining lot here as a distinct parcel of merchandise.) Depends on what the definition of "lot" is.

    English ain't for sissies. ;-) Jan 16, 2008

  • uselessness I guess I fail at Wordieing... Jan 16, 2008

  • sionnach What reesetee said. "is" is correct - if "are" doesn't sound wrong to you, maybe you're not trying hard enough. Jan 16, 2008

  • uselessness So it applies to all groups: a ton, a plethora, a multitude, a lot? If you say so, dude, if you say so. But my inner writer, the part of me concerned with sentence flow, doesn't want to agree. Jan 16, 2008

  • reesetee Easy. "Is." Even if it sounds wrong. All the respectable pedants are saying it. :-)

    Sincerely yours, A Crusty Old Editor Jan 16, 2008

  • uselessness Go ahead and answer, if you're man enough. ;-) Jan 16, 2008

  • reesetee *trying to figure out whether those are rhetorical questions* Jan 16, 2008

  • uselessness Which is proper: "There are a bunch of kids in the theater" or "there is a bunch of kids in the theater"? Supposedly, the latter is more grammatically correct, but it just sounds wrong. What's a respectable pedant to do? I guess it all depends on what the definition of "is" is. ;-) Jan 16, 2008

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‘is’ has been looked up 16369 times, loved by 1 person, added to 45 lists, commented on 14 times, and has a Scrabble score of 2.