apostrophe

See also: Apostrophe and apostrophé

English

WOTD – 13 February 2007

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒs.trə.fi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑːs.trə.fi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• apostrophë
• apostrophy

Noun

apostrophe ‎(plural apostrophes)

1. (orthography) The text character ’, which 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) ‎(apatʿarcʿ)
• Asturian: apóstrofu m
• Bengali: ঊর্ধকমা ‎(urdhôkma)
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) m ‎(apostrof)
• Catalan: apòstrof m
• Chinese:

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

• Cornish: kollverk m, kollverkys m pl
• Czech: apostrof (cs) m
• Danish: apostrof
• Dutch: weglatingsteken n, apostrof (nl) f
• Esperanto: apostrofo (eo)
• Estonian: ülakoma
• Finnish: heittomerkki (fi)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofo m
• Georgian: აპოსტროფი ‎(aṗosṭropi)
• German: Apostroph (de) m, Hochkomma n
• Greek: απόστροφος (el) f ‎(apóstrofos)

  Ancient: ἀπόστροφος f ‎(apóstrophos)

• Hungarian: aposztróf (hu)
• Icelandic: úrfellingarmerki n
• Ido: apostrofo (io)
• Ilocano: tuldek
• Interlingua: apostropho

• Irish: uaschamóg f, apastróf f
• 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 ‎(しょうりゃくふごう, shōryaku fugō)
• Latvian: apostrofs m
• Lithuanian: apostrofa m
• Luxembourgish: Apostroph m
• Latin: apostrophus f
• Macedonian: апостроф m ‎(apostrof)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: apostrof m

  Nynorsk: apostrof m

• Persian: آپوستروف (fa) ‎(âpostrof)
• Polish: apostrof (pl) m
• Portuguese: apóstrofo (pt) m
• Romanian: apostrof (ro) n
• Russian: апо́стро́ф (ru) m ‎(apóstróf)
• Scottish Gaelic: ascair m, asgair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: апостроф m, изоставник m

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

• Slovak: apostrof m
• Slovene: opuščaj (sl) m, apostrof (sl) m
• Spanish: apóstrofo (es) m
• Swedish: apostrof (sv)
• Tagalog: kudlit
• Ukrainian: апостроф (uk) m ‎(apostrof)
• Welsh: collnod m, sillgoll f

Derived terms

• greengrocer's apostrophe

Related terms

Punctuation

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) braces ( { } ) brackets ( [ ] ) colon ( : ) comma ( , )

dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― ) ellipsis ( … ) exclamation mark ( ! ) fraction slash ( ⁄ ) guillemets ( « » )

hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) interpunct ( · ) interrobang (rare) ( ‽ ) parentheses ( ( ) ) period (US) or full stop (UK) ( . )

question mark ( ? ) quotation marks (formal, UK) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” ) quotation marks (informal, US, Computing) ( " ) ( ' )

semicolon ( ; ) slash (US) or stroke (UK) ( / ) 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.en.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή ‎(apostrophḗ), from ἀποστρέφω ‎(apostréphō, “I turn away”), from ἀπό ‎(apó) + στρέφω ‎(stréphō, “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) ‎(apatʿarcʿ)
• Asturian: apóstrofe f
• Bulgarian: апостроф (bg) ‎(apostrof)
• Catalan: apòstrofe m
• Danish: apostrofe c
• Dutch: apostrof (nl) f
• Finnish: apostrofi (fi)
• French: apostrophe (fr) f
• Galician: apóstrofe f
• Greek: αποστροφή (el) f ‎(apostrofí)
• Interlingua: apostrophe

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

  Cyrillic: апострофа f

  Roman: apostrofa (sh) f

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

---

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

apostrophe f ‎(plural apostrophes)

1. (orthography) apostrophe

Etymology 2

From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή ‎(apostrophḗ), from ἀποστρέφω ‎(apostréphō, “I turn away”), from ἀπό ‎(apó) + στρέφω ‎(stréphō, “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

External links

• “apostrophe” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).