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 diacrictical mark in certain rare contexts.

Translations

the character ’

Albanian: apostrof (sq) m. Armenian: ապաթարց (hy) (apat’arc’) Bosnian: apostrof (bs) m. Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) m. Catalan: apòstrof 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) Croatian: apostrof (hr) m., izostavnik (hr) m. Czech: apostrof (cs) m. Danish: apostrof (da) Dutch: afkappingsteken (nl) n., weglatingsteken (nl) n., apostrof (nl) f. Finnish: heittomerkki (fi) French: apostrophe (fr) f. 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 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) 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. Serbian: Cyrillic: апостроф m. Roman: apostrof m. Slovene: opuščaj (sl) m., apostrof (sl) m. Spanish: apóstrofo (es) m. Swedish: apostrof (sv)

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 (apat‘arts‘) Bosnian: apostrofa (bs) f. Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) Croatian: apostrofa (hr) f. Danish: apostrofe (da) c. Dutch: apostrof (nl) f. Finnish: apostrofi (fi) French: apostrophe (fr) f. Greek: αποστροφή (el) f. Interlingua: apostrophe (ia)

Macedonian: апострофа (mk) (аpostrófa) f. Polish: apostrofa (pl) f. Portuguese: apóstrofe (pt) f. Romanian: apostrof (ro) n. Serbian: Cyrillic: апострофа f. Roman: apostrofa 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