English Explanatory Dictionary

apostrophe

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The text character ’, which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
noun
  1. A sudden exclamatory piece of dialogue addressed to someone or something, especially absent.
noun
  1. An arrangement of chlorophyll grains perpendicular to the outer surface of plant cells, as opposed to epistrophe (an arrangement on the outer surface).

Pronunciation

/əˈpɒs.tɹə.fi/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-apostrophe.wav /əˈpɑs.tɹə.fi/ en-us-apostrophe.ogg en-au-apostrophe.ogg

Word forms

apostrophe apostrophes apostrophë apostrophy

Etymology

From French apostrophe, or Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “to turn away”), from ἀπό (apó, “away from”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).

Related words

curly brackets brace square bracket bracket colon comma dash ellipsis exclamation mark fraction slash guillemet hyphen interpunct interrobang parentheses (US Canada) full stop period question mark quotation marks semicolon slash stroke space catastrophe

Derived words

apologetic apostrophe apostrophectomy apostrophed apostropheless apostrophise curly apostrophe greengrocers' apostrophe greengrocer's apostrophe idiot's apostrophe printer's apostrophe rogue apostrophe straight apostrophe typewriter apostrophe typographical apostrophe typographic apostrophe vertical apostrophe apostrophic apostrophically apostrophize
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