Sentence:  Of the two , Porter <WSD>is</WSD> justly the better known , for he went far beyond the vital finding of fiction for films to take the first step toward fashioning a language of film , toward making the motion picture the intricate , efficient time machine that it has remained since , even in the most inept hands . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)