Word.ws English Dictionary

is

UK/ɪz/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ɘz/

is verb: used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of be.

Verb

is

  1. (colloquial) Used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural.
    • There is three of them there.
    • Ber. There is five in the firſt ſhew, / Ken. You are deceiued, tis not so.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Proper noun capitalized: IS

IS

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Islamic State.
    Synonyms:
    Daesh, ISIL, ISIS
  2. (abbreviation, initialism, languages) Initialism of Interior Salish.

Noun (1) capitalized: IS

IS

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of International Sign.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of information system(s).
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of international studies.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of implementation shortfall.

Noun (2) capitalized: Is

Is

  1. (plural) plural of I
  2. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Islands (also Is.)

Also used as

is is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of be.

is is also the present indicative of be.

is is also the alternative spelling of us.

is is also the alternative form of i's.

Examples of is in a sentence

  • The fundamental group of the figure eight is free of rank 2.
  • I'm running a book on who is going to win the race.
  • In the UK, the highest social grade is A – upper middle class.

All 40 example sentences with is

Synonyms of is

Forms of is

Verb
alternative formees
alternative form's
alternative formiz
Proper noun
alternative formI.S.
alternative formI. S.

Origin of 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.

Alternative pronunciation of us.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from is

Phrases with is

188 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with is

32 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about is

What does is mean?
Is means used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural.
What part of speech is is?
Is can be a verb, a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce is?
Is is pronounced /ɪz/ (UK).

Words near is in the dictionary

  1. iryo
  2. Irân
  3. Irâq
  4. Irān
  5. Irāq
  6. is
  7. is a bear Catholic
  8. is a man
  9. is a one
  10. is a thing
  11. is able to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: is (page history and authors); IS (page history and authors); Is (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-is.ogg.

Cite this entry: “is.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/is. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.