is
/ɪz/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 7.07 in modern English
2
Scrabble Score
2
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
verb
Used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural.
Colloquial
verb
present indicative of be; am, are, is.
pron
Alternative spelling of us (“me”).
noun
Alternative form of i's.
name
name
Initialism of Interior Salish.
noun
Example Sentences
- "He is a doctor."
- ""It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.""
- ""It's not two weeks yet," I reminded her, hoping that might somehow cheer her. […] "Tomorrow is two weeks," Ruth said in a distant voice, staring into the flames."
- "There is three of them there."
- "Ber. There is five in the firſt ſhew, / Ken. You are deceiued, tis not so."
- "Let the whole world know we's on some off-key tip"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Germanic *isti Proto-West Germanic *ist Old English is Middle English is English is From Middle English is, from Old English is, from Proto-West Germanic *ist, from Proto-Germanic *isti (a form of Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to be”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (“is”). Cognate with West Frisian is (“is”), Dutch is (“is”), German ist (“is”), Yiddish איז (iz, “is”), Afrikaans is (“am, are, is”) Old Swedish är, er, Old Norse er, es. Further cognates include, among others, Latin est, Ancient Greek ἐστί (estí), Sanskrit अस्ति (asti), Persian است (ast), Russian есть (jestʹ), all with the same meaning.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪz/
- British English: /ɪz/