Definition of "copula" []

• A verb, such as a form of be or seem, that identifies the predicate of a sentence with the subject. Also called linking verb. (noun)
• Logic The word or set of words that serves as a link between the subject and predicate of a proposition. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Copula This couples (hence the Latinate term copula) the individual probabilities associated with A and B to come up with a single number."
• "It is often an awkward task so to analyse propositions relative to past or future time as to bring out the copula under the form 'is' or 'is not': but fortunately there is no necessity for so doing, since, as has been said before (§ 188), the material form of the copula is a matter of indifference to logic."
• "The Verb, as such, is not recognised by logic, but is resolved into predicate and copula, that is to say, into a noun which is affirmed or denied of another, plus the sign of that affirmation or denial."