Cops

How to spell cops

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cops

What does cops mean?

1. nounAn informal word for police officers.
2. verbGrabs, takes, or receives something, often informally.

Cops in a sentence

• noun

  The cops arrived within minutes of the alarm sounding.

• verb

  He always cops the best seat by the window before anyone else.

• noun

  Two cops stood guard outside the courthouse all morning.

• verb

  If she breaks the rule again she cops a hefty fine.

Where does cops come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural of 'cop', an informal term for a police officer that has been current since the middle of the 1800s. The most widely accepted account traces it to the verb 'to cop', meaning to seize, catch, or grab, which itself probably comes from the Old French word 'caper', meaning to seize, ultimately from the Latin 'capere', meaning to take or to catch. A police officer was therefore a 'copper', one who copped or caught wrongdoers, and that was soon shortened to 'cop'. A popular story claims the term stands for 'constable on patrol' or refers to copper buttons on uniforms, but those are later inventions rather than the real origin. The spelling is entirely regular and phonetic, so the only thing to remember is the simple plural -s.

How the word is built

• cop (police officer / to catch)
• -s (plural or third-person verb ending)