copula
Americannoun
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copulas,
plural
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copulae
plural
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something that connects or links together.
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Also called linking verb. Grammar. a verb, as be, seem, or look, that serves as a connecting link or establishes an identity between subject and complement.
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Logic. a word or set of words that acts as a connecting link between the subject and predicate of a proposition.
noun
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a verb, such as be, seem, or taste, that is used merely to identify or link the subject with the complement of a sentence. Copulas may serve to link nouns (or pronouns), as in he became king, nouns (or pronouns) and adjectival complements, as in sugar tastes sweet, or nouns (or pronouns) and adverbial complements, as in John is in jail
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anything that serves as a link
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logic the often unexpressed link between the subject and predicate terms of a categorial proposition, as are in all men are mortal
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of copula
1640–50; < Latin cōpula, equivalent to co- co- + ap- fasten ( see apt) + -ula -ule
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In one episode the shirtless tribal leader Khal Drogo delivered a monologue for two and a half minutes in Dothraki, with its subject-verb-object structure and no copula, or linking verb.
From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2011
But since the former can be conceived only after the manner of the latter, the appropriateness of using the verb which expresses existence or reality, as the logical copula, will be at once apparent.
From Ontology or the Theory of Being by Peter Coffey
If it must not be left out altogether, and we cannot put it with the copula, we have a choice between the two terms.
From Logic, Inductive and Deductive by William Minto
In such a case as this, the verb expresses predication and nothing else, and is called a copula.
From Hume (English Men of Letters Series) by Thomas Henry Huxley
When, as in mathematics, important consequences seem to follow from them, such really follow from the tacit assumption, through the ambiguity of the copula, of the real existence of the object named.
From Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic by W. (William) Stebbing
Each of these eight copulae gives rise to a spore.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various
The doctrine of copulae was discarded, and in 1859 emphasis was given to the view that all organic compounds were derivatives of inorganic by simple substitution processes.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 "Châtelet" to "Chicago" by Various
Unwilling to discard the strictly unitary views of these chemists, or to adopt the copulae theory of Berzelius, he revived the notion of radicals in a new form.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 "Châtelet" to "Chicago" by Various
He had been known to continue one sentence for ten minutes, his oratorical method being to substitute copulas for full stops.
From Years of Plenty by Ivor Brown
From this it follows, that whenever there is a conjunction, there are two subjects, two copulas, and two predicates: i.e., two propositions in all their parts.
From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham
A brilliant crescent moon hung in the steel blue eastern sky, above the stables, the copulas of which cut sharply into the air.
From The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
