Definition of "is" [is]

• Third person singular present indicative of be. (verb)

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.

• "We have remarked, that it is no mystery why the decision should have gone pretty uniformly in favour of the ancients; for here is the dilemma: -- A man, attempting this problem, _is_ or _is not_ a classical scholar."
• "This misses the point that, to a large extent, the west *is* much better at capitalism than the BRICs... the infrastructure we have by way of UK company law, or the big-4 accountants, or the magic circle law firms is simply much more developed, and offers better scrutiny and outcomes than anything else on offer; and we are rightly world leading in many of these areas."
• "One option, which is being used in some areas of the spill,  is to burn the oil before it reaches shore."