APOSTROPHE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does apostrophe mean? 

• APOSTROPHE (noun)
  The noun APOSTROPHE has 2 senses:

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

  Familiarity information: APOSTROPHE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APOSTROPHE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Address to an absent or imaginary person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("apostrophe" is a kind of...):

rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more letters from a printed word

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("apostrophe" is a kind of...):

punctuation; punctuation mark (the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases)

Derivation:

apostrophise; apostrophize (use an apostrophe)

 Context examples 

Come, come, my dear lady, said he, you speak vastly beyond my merits; upon which encouragement she started again in a theatrical apostrophe to Britain’s darling and Neptune’s eldest son, which he endured with the same signs of gratitude and pleasure.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Poor William! He has met with great kindness from the chaplain of the Antwerp,” was a tender apostrophe of Fanny's, very much to the purpose of her own feelings if not of the conversation.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)