Apostrophe

Definition:

  • (n.) 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."
  • (n.) 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.
  • (n.) 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.

Compare apostrophe with other words:

apostrophe vs. metaphor

apostrophe vs. monologue

apostrophe vs. apostrophize

apostrophe vs. strophe

apostrophe vs. apostrophic

apostrophe vs. soliloquy

apostrophe vs. ditto

apostrophe vs. omission

apostrophe vs. catastrophe

absent vs. apostrophe

addressed vs. apostrophe

apostrophe vs. dialogue

apostrophe vs. punctuation

apostrophe vs. exclamatory

apostrophe vs. contraction