apostrophe

See also: Apostrophe and apostrophé

English

WOTD – 13 February 2007

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒs.tɹə.fi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑːs.tɹə.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 c
• 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)
• Latin: apostrophus f
• Latvian: apostrofs m
• Lithuanian: apostrofa m
• Luxembourgish: Apostroph m
• 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.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 (countable and uncountable, 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
• Czech: apostrofa
• 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

Further reading

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