apostrophe
noun
Simple meaning
The text character ', which serves as a punctuation mark in different languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhpahstruhfeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈpɑstɹəfi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
orthography
The text character ', which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
botany
An arrangement of chlorophyll grains perpendicular to the outer surface of plant cells, as opposed to epistrophe (an arrangement on the outer surface).
rhetoric
A sudden exclamatory piece of dialogue addressed to someone or something, especially absent.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (orthography) The text character ', which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
Used this way, apostrophe is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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What Does It Mean Here?
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Related Learning
Guides that use this word in context.
Quick Lessons
Its vs. It’s: The Apostrophe Rule That Trips Everyone Up
A simple, lasting way to remember the difference between its and it's, with examples and a foolproof substitution test.
Word Differences
Your vs. You’re: The One-Second Test
When to use your and when to use you’re, with a substitution test, examples and the mistakes that slip past spellcheck.
Use it yourself
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.