copulative

American  

[kop-yuh-lay-tiv, -luh-tiv] / ˈkɒp jəˌleɪ tɪv, -lə tɪv /

adjective

1. serving to unite or couple.

2. Grammar.

   1. involving or consisting of connected words or clauses.

      a copulative sentence.

   2. pertaining to or serving as a copula; serving to connect subject and complement.

      a copulative verb.

   3. serving to connect nouns, noun phrases, verbs, clauses, etc..

      a copulative conjunction.

   4. of the dvandva type.

      Bittersweet is a copulative compound.

3. of or relating to sexual intercourse.

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noun

1. Grammar. a copulative word.

copulative British  

/ ˈkɒpjʊlətɪv /

adjective

1. serving to join or unite

2. of or characteristic of copulation

3. grammar (of a verb) having the nature of a copula

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Other Word Forms

• copulatively
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of copulative

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English copulatif, from Middle French copulatif, copulative, from Late Latin cōpulātīvus; see copulate, -ive

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

copulative

Two substantives with a copulative being here, as is the frequent practice of our author, used for an adjective and substantive: an adjective sense is given to a substantive.

From Hamlet by Charles John Kean

Also a relative, which, may be resolved into his antecedent with a conjunction copulative, as thus, which runneth, and he runneth.

From Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Various

That no number of connected singular nouns can govern a plural verb, unless they be connected by a copulative conjunction.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

But this particle, which here allows of eight degrees, is much diminished when it fills the office of a simple copulative.

From Delsarte System of Oratory by Various

And is said to be copulative because it merely adds something to what has just been said.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks

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