Word.ws English Dictionary

copulative

/ˈkɒpjʊlətɪv/

copulative adjective: of or pertaining to copulation.

Adjective

copulative (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to copulation.
  2. That acts as a copula.
  3. That connects the subject of a clause with its complement.

Noun

copulative (plural copulatives)

  1. (obsolete) A connection.
    • They understand Polygamie to be a Conjunction of divers Copulatives in number, which is not understood till a person proceeds unto a fourth Wife, which makes more than one Copulative in the rule of Marriage.1679, Paul Rycaut, The present state of the Greek and Armenian churches
  2. A copulative conjunction.
    • In Polysyndeton conjunctions flow,
      And every word its copulative will shew.1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Copulative.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 53

Forms of copulative

pluralcopulatives

Origin of copulative

From Latin copulativus.

Words formed from copulative

Questions about copulative

What does copulative mean?
Copulative means of or pertaining to copulation.
What part of speech is copulative?
Copulative can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce copulative?
Copulative is pronounced /ˈkɒpjʊlətɪv/.

Words near copulative in the dictionary

  1. copulateth
  2. copulating
  3. copulatingly
  4. copulation
  5. copulations
  6. copulative
  7. copulatively
  8. copulatives
  9. copulator
  10. copulators
  11. copulatory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: copulative (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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