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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.


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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of copulative

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


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:

One of the commonest forms is the copulative, such as Salt is both savoury and wholesome, equivalent to two simple propositions: Salt is savoury; Salt is wholesome.

From Logic Deductive and Inductive by Carveth Read

It is a copulative conjunction, connecting the two members of the sentence—he will adopt if he can procure: Rule, as above.

From Lectures on Language As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. by William Stevens Balch

“Spirit of the Age”: “He used to plague Fuseli by asking him after the origin of the Teutonic dialects, and Dr. Parr, by wishing to know the meaning of the common copulative, Is.”

From Hazlitt on English Literature An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature by Jacob Zeitlin

Thou, nukw; copulative prefixed, chin; suffixed, hu; or in the imperative, chi.

From Alphabetical Vocabularies of the Clallum and Lummi by George Gibbs

Conjunctions copulative and disjunctive, couple like cases, moods, and tenses, as Socrates docuit Xenophontem et Platonem geographiam, astronomiam, et rationem globorum: Socrates taught Xenophon and Plato geography, astronomy, and the use of the globes.

From The Comic Latin Grammar A new and facetious introduction to the Latin tongue by John Leech

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