On this day in 1998, former President Clinton dabbled in semantics during the Grand Jury hearings to clarify his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." Well, someone made this day one of those national silly holidays. What we are supposed to do on this day, I don't know, but it got me thinking about how difficult it is to describe certain words. How do we define the word is?
Think about it? You can't even define the word without using the word itself. Is is a state of being. It is a form of the verb to be. According to Merriam Webster, is is defined as, "present 3d singular of be, dialect present 1st & 2nd singular of be, dialect present plural of be"
To be or not to be, that IS the question! How would you define the word is? Try it! What other words are difficult to define? Share!
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It's National Meaning of "is" Day!
On this day in 1998, former President Clinton dabbled in semantics during the Grand Jury hearings to clarify his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." Well, someone made this day one of those national silly holidays. What we are supposed to do on this day, I don't know, but it got me thinking about how difficult it is to describe certain words. How do we define the word is?
Think about it? You can't even define the word without using the word itself. Is is a state of being. It is a form of the verb to be. According to Merriam Webster, is is defined as, "present 3d singular of be, dialect present 1st & 2nd singular of be, dialect present plural of be"
To be or not to be, that IS the question! How would you define the word is? Try it! What other words are difficult to define? Share!
X
If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed so you don’t miss one and SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter: for even MORE communication fun, FREE gifts, Book of the Month Club and exclusive excerpts and offers we don’t share with ANYONE else but our subscribers!
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4 comments
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I remember that statement. UGH! I may not know how to define it, but I know what “is” is. There are lots of words like that. I go to define them and I know what they mean, but explaining them is a whole ’nother ballgame!
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Exactly. Often we know what something means, but it’s hard to actually define it. Similarly, we may know what WE mean, but may find it hard to define (communicate) it to others.
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I remember that too! Oh my – has it really been that long ago? Good grief. I know people hate “it is what it is” too – but it totally describes those events that there is no “fix” for. So I use it a LOT!
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That’s true, Cindy. My dh says it is what it is.