Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

is

[iz]

Origin

verb

3rd person singular present indicative of be.

Idiom

as is. as¹ (def. 25).

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Is is one of our favorite verbs.

So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch is, Old Norse es, er, German, Gothic ist, Latin est, Greek estí, OCS jestĭ, Sanskrit asti

Dictionary.com Unabridged

variant of iso- before a vowel: isallobar.

verb (used without object)

to exist or live: Shakespeare's “To be or not to be” is the ultimate question.

to take place; happen; occur: The wedding was last week.

to occupy a place or position: The book is on the table.

to continue or remain as before: Let things be.

to belong; attend; befall: May good fortune be with you.

EXPAND

(used as a copula to connect the subject with its predicate adjective, or predicate nominative, in order to describe, identify, or amplify the subject): Martha is tall. John is president. This is she.

(used as a copula to introduce or form interrogative or imperative sentences): Is that right? Be quiet! Don't be facetious.

COLLAPSE

auxiliary verb

(used with the present participle of another verb to form the progressive tense): I am waiting.

(used with the present participle or infinitive of the principal verb to indicate future action): She is visiting there next week. He is to see me today.

10.

(used with the past participle of another verb to form the passive voice): The date was fixed. It must be done.

11.

(used in archaic or literary constructions with some intransitive verbs to form the perfect tense): He is come. Agamemnon to the wars is gone.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English been, Old English bēon (bēo- (akin to Old Frisian, Old High German bim, German bin, Old Saxon bium, biom (I) am, Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon būan, Old Norse būa reside, Latin fuī (I) have been, Greek phy- grow, become, Old Irish boí (he) was, Sanskrit bhávati (he) becomes, is, Lithuanian búti to be, OCS byti, Persian būd was)) + -n infinitive suffix. See am, is, are¹, was, were

Can be confused: be, bee.

Usage note
See me.

noun, plural I's or Is, i's or is.

the ninth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel.

any spoken sound represented by the letter I or i, as in big, nice, or ski.

something having the shape of an I.

a written or printed representation of the letter I or i.

a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter I ori.

pronoun

the nominative singular pronoun, used by a speaker in referring to himself or herself.

noun

(used to denote the narrator of a literary work written in the first person singular).

Metaphysics. the ego.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English ik, ich, i; Old English ic, ih; cognate with German ich, Old Norse ek, Latin ego, Greek egṓ, OCS azŭ, Lithuanian aš, Sanskrit ahám

Usage note
See me.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To is

Collins

World English Dictionary

is¹ (ɪz)

—vb (used with he, she, it, and with singular nouns)
	a form of the present tense (indicative mood) of be

[Old English; compare Old Norse es, German ist, Latin est, Greek esti]

is²

—*the internet domain name for*
	Iceland

IS

—*abbreviation for*
	Iceland (international car registration)

[Icelandic ĺsland]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

12c. shortening of O.E. ic, first person sing. nom. pronoun, from P.Gmc. *ekan (cf. O.Fris. ik, O.N. ek, Norw. eg, Dan. jeg, O.H.G. ih, Ger. ich, Goth. ik), from PIE *ego(m) (cf. Skt. aham, Hitt. uk, L. ego, Gk. ego, Rus. ja). Reduced to i by 1137 in northern England, it began to be capitalized c.1250

EXPAND

to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.

"The reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I) whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij, etc.), just as much as the pronoun." [Otto Jespersen, "Growth and Structure of the English Language," p.233]

The form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c.1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. The dot on the "small" letter -i- began to appear in 11c. L. manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-). Originally a diacritic, it was reduced to a dot with the introduction of Roman type fonts. The basic word for "I" in Japanese is watakushi, but it is not much used. Words that boys usually use are boku (polite) or ore (OH-ray), a rougher word, which can be rude depending on the situation. Girls usually use atashi (a feminine-sounding word) or the neutral watashi, but a tomboy might use boku like boys do.

O.E. beon, beom, bion "be, exist, come to be, become," from P.Gmc. *beo-, *beu-. This "b-root" is from PIE base *bheu-, *bhu- "grow, come into being, become," and in addition to the words in English it yielded German present first and second person sing. (bin, bist, from O.H.G. bim "I am," bist "thou

art"), L. perf. tenses of esse (fui "I was," etc.), O.C.S. byti "be," Gk. phu- "become," O.Ir. bi'u "I am," Lith. bu'ti "to be," Rus. byt' "to be," etc. It also is behind Skt. bhavah "becoming," bhavati "becomes, happens," bhumih "earth, world."

The modern verb in its entirety represents the merger of two once-distinct verbs, the "b-root" represented by be and the am/was verb, which was itself a conglomerate. Roger Lass ("Old English") describes the verb as "a collection of semantically related paradigm fragments," while Weekley calls it "an accidental conglomeration from the different Old English dial[ect]s." It is the most irregular verb in Mod.E. and the most common. Collective in all Germanic languages, it has eight different forms in Modern English:

BE (infinitive, subjunctive, imperative)
AM (present 1st person singular)
ARE (present 2nd person singular and all plural)
IS (present 3rd person singular)
WAS (past 1st and 3rd persons singular)
WERE (past 2nd person singular, all plural; subjunctive)
BEING (progressive & present participle; gerund)
BEEN (perfect participle).

The paradigm in O.E. was:

	SING.	PL.
1st pres.	ic eom ic beo	we sind(on) we beoð
2nd pres.	þu eart þu bist	ge sind(on) ge beoð
3rd pres.	he is he bið	hie sind(on) hie beoð
1st pret.	ic wæs	we wæron
2nd pret.	þu wære	ge waeron
3rd pret.	heo wæs	hie wæron
1st pret. subj.	ic wære	we wæren
2nd pret. subj.	þu wære	ge wæren
3rd pret. subj.	Egcferð wære	hie wæren

The "b-root" had no past tense in O.E., but often served as future tense of am/was. In 13c. it took the place of the infinitive, participle and imperative forms of am/was. Later its plural forms (we beth, ye ben, they be) became standard in M.E. and it made inroads into the singular (I be, thou beest, he beth), but forms of are claimed this turf in the 1500s and replaced be in the plural. For the origin and evolution of the am/was branches of this tangle, see am and was.

"That but this blow Might be the be all, and the end all." ["Macbeth" I.vii.5]

O.E. is, from Gmc. stem *es- (cf. O.H.G., Ger., Goth. ist, O.N. es, er), from PIE *es-ti- (cf. Skt. asti, Gk. esti, L. est, Lith. esti, O.C.S. jesti), from base *es- "to be." O.E. lost the final -t-. See be.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

Be
The symbol for the element beryllium.

The symbol for the element iodine.
iThe symbol for current.

is- pref.
Variant of iso-.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

beryllium (bə-rĭl'ē-əm) Pronunciation Key
Symbol Be
A hard, lightweight, steel-gray metallic element of the alkaline-earth group, found in various minerals, especially beryl. It has a high melting point and is corrosion-resistant. Beryllium is used to make sturdy, lightweight alloys and aerospace structural materials. It is also used as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors. Atomic number 4; atomic weight 9.0122; melting point 1,278°C; boiling point 2,970°C; specific gravity 1.848; valence 2. See Periodic Table.

i (ī) Pronunciation Key
The number whose square is equal to -1. numbers expressed in terms of i are called imaginary or complex numbers.

The symbol for electric current.
The symbol for iodine.

iodine (ī'ə-dīn') Pronunciation Key
Symbol I
A shiny, grayish-black element of the halogen group. It is corrosive and poisonous and occurs in very small amounts in nature except for seaweed, in which it is abundant. Iodine compounds are used in medicine, antiseptics, and dyes. Atomic number 53; atomic weight 126.9045; melting point 113.5°C; boiling point 184.35°C; specific gravity (solid, at 20°C) 4.93; valence 1, 3, 5, 7. See Periodic Table.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary