apostrophe

See also apostrophé

English

WOTD – 13 February 2007    

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /əˈpɒs.trə.fi/
• (US) IPA: /əˈpɑːs.trə.fi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From French apostrophe, or Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apostrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostrephō, “I turn away”).

Alternative forms

• apostrophë

Noun

apostrophe (plural apostrophes)

1. (orthography) The text character ’, that serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.

Translations

the character ’

• Albanian: apostrof (sq) m
• Armenian: ապաթարց (hy) (apat’arc’)
• Asturian: apóstrofu (ast) m
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) (apostrof) m
• Catalan: apòstrof (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 省略符號 (cmn), 省略符号 (cmn) (shěnglüè fúhào), 隔音符號 (cmn), 隔音符号 (cmn) (géyīn fúhào), 省字符 (cmn) (shěngzìfú), 單引號 (cmn), 单引号 (cmn) (dānyǐnhào)

• Czech: apostrof (cs) m
• Danish: apostrof (da)
• Dutch: afkappingsteken (nl) n, weglatingsteken (nl) n, apostrof (nl) f
• Finnish: heittomerkki (fi)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofo (gl) m
• Georgian: აპოსტროფი (ka) (apostrop’i)
• German: Apostroph (de) m, Hochkomma (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀπόστροφος f

  Modern: απόστροφος (el) (apóstrofos) f

• Hungarian: aposztróf (hu)

• Icelandic: úrfellingarmerki (is) n
• Interlingua: apostropho (ia)
• Italian: apostrofo (it) m
• Japanese: アポストロフィー (ja) (aposutorofī), アポストロフ (ja) (aposutorofu), 省略符号 (ja) (しょうりゃくふごう, shōryaku fugō)
• Jèrriais: apostrophe f
• Latvian: apostrofs (lv) m
• Luxembourgish: Apostroph (lb) m
• Macedonian: апостроф (mk) (ápostrof) m
• Polish: apostrof (pl) m
• Portuguese: apóstrofo (pt) m
• Romanian: apostrof (ro) n
• Russian: апостроф (ru) (apostróf, apóstrof) m
• Scottish Gaelic: ascair (gd) m, asgair (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: апостроф (sh) m, изоставник (sh) m

  Roman: apostrof (sh) m, izostavnik (sh) m

• Slovene: opuščaj (sl) m, apostrof (sl) m
• Spanish: apóstrofo (es) m
• Swedish: apostrof (sv)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

Derived terms

• greengrocer's apostrophe

Related terms

Punctuation

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) braces (publishing, music, programming) ( { } ) brackets (publishing, programming) ( [ ] ) colon ( : )

comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― ) ellipsis ( … ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop (British) or period (North America) ( . ) guillemets (publishing) ( « » )

hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) interpunct (publishing, web design) ( · ) interrobang (rare) ( ‽ ) parentheses ( ( ) )

question mark ( ? ) quotation marks (formal, British) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” ) quotation marks (informal, North America, computing) ( " ) ( ' )

semicolon ( ; ) slash ( / ) solidus (dated, mathematics) ( ⁄ ) space (   )

Usage notes

In English, the apostrophe is used to mark the possessive or to show the omission of letters or numbers.

See also

• Apostrophe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή, from ἀποστρέφω (“I turn away”), from ἀπό + στρέφω (“I turn”).

Noun

apostrophe (plural apostrophes)

1. (rhetoric) A sudden exclamatory piece of dialogue addressed to someone or something, especially absent.

Derived terms

• apostrophically

Related terms

• catastrophe

Translations

sudden piece of dialogue

• Armenian: ապաթարց (hy) (apat‘arts‘)
• Asturian: apóstrofe (ast) f
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) (apostrof)
• Catalan: apòstrofe (ca) m
• Danish: apostrofe (da) c
• Dutch: apostrof (nl) f
• Finnish: apostrofi (fi)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofe (gl) f
• Greek: αποστροφή (el) (apostrofí) f
• Interlingua: apostrophe (ia)

• Irish: aitheasc (ga) m
• Macedonian: апострофа (mk) (аpostrófa) f
• Polish: apostrofa (pl) f
• Portuguese: apóstrofe (pt) f
• Romanian: apostrof (ro) n
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: апострофа (sh) f

  Roman: apostrofa (sh) f

• Spanish: apóstrofe (es) m and f
• Swedish: apostrof (sv)

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apostrophos, “accent of elision”), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostrephō, “I turn away”).

Noun

apostrophe f (plural apostrophes)

1. (orthography) apostrophe

Etymology 2

From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή, from ἀποστρέφω (“I turn away”), from ἀπό + στρέφω (“I turn”).

Noun

apostrophe f (plural apostrophes)

1. (rhetoric) apostrophe

Related terms

• apostropher

Verb

apostrophe

1. first-person singular present indicative of apostropher
2. third-person singular present indicative of apostropher
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of apostropher
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of apostropher
5. second-person singular imperative of apostropher