Adjacent Words

Apostrophe definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

APOS'TROPHE,
APOS'TROPHIC, a. Pertaining to an apostrophe, noting the contraction of a word.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: address to an absent or imaginary person
2: the mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Latin, from Greek apostroph?, literally, act of turning away, from apostrephein to turn away, from apo- + strephein to turn Date: 1533 the addressing of a usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically <Carlyle's “O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!” is an example of apostrophe> • apostrophic adjective II. noun Etymology: French & Late Latin; French, from Late Latin apostrophus, from Greek apostrophos, from apostrophos turned away, from apostrephein Date: 1727 a mark ' used to indicate the omission of letters or figures, the possessive case, or the plural of letters or figures • apostrophic adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. a punctuation mark used to indicate: 1 the omission of letters or numbers (e.g. can't; he's; 1 Jan. '92). 2 the possessive case (e.g. Harry's book; boys' coats). Etymology: F apostrophe or LL apostrophus f. Gk apostrophos accent of elision f. apostrepho turn away (as APO-, strepho turn) 2. n. an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem, addressed to a person (often dead or absent) or thing (often personified). Derivatives: apostrophize v.tr. & intr. (also -ise). Etymology: L f. Gk, lit. 'turning away' (as APOSTROPHE(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Apostrophe A*pos"tro*phe, n. [(1) L., fr. Gr. ? a turning away, fr. ? to turn away; ? from + ? to turn. (2) F., fr. L. apostrophus apostrophe, the turning away or omitting of a letter, Gr. ?.] 1. (Rhet.) A figure of speech by which the orator or writer suddenly breaks off from the previous method of his discourse, and addresses, in the second person, some person or thing, absent or present; as, Milton's apostrophe to Light at the beginning of the third book of ``Paradise Lost.'' 2. (Gram.) The contraction of a word by the omission of a letter or letters, which omission is marked by the character ['] placed where the letter or letters would have been; as, call'd for called. 3. The mark ['] used to denote that a word is contracted (as in ne'er for never, can't for can not), and as a sign of the possessive, singular and plural; as, a boy's hat, boys' hats. In the latter use it originally marked the omission of the letter e. Note: The apostrophe is used to mark the plural of figures and letters; as, two 10's and three a's. It is also employed to mark the close of a quotation.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(apostrophes) An apostrophe is the mark ' when it is written to indicate that one or more letters have been left out of a word, as in 'isn't' and 'we'll'. It is also added to nouns to form possessives, as in 'Mike's car'. N-COUNT