apostrophe

noun

(orthography) The text character ’, which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.

(rhetoric) A sudden exclamatory piece of dialogue addressed to someone or something, especially absent.

(botany) An arrangement of chlorophyll grains perpendicular to the outer surface of plant cells, as opposed to epistrophe (an arrangement on the outer surface).

Roots

apoapo- · Greek · away from strephein-stroph · Greek · to turn

Synonyms & related words for apostrophe

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of apostrophe. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to apostrophe

Explore words related to apostrophe — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include apostrophize, apostrophic, punctuation, comma, hyphens, ellipsis, diaeresis, semicolon. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Where does apostrophe come from?

The word apostrophe breaks down into 2 roots of Greek origin: apo-, from Greek apo (“away from”); and -stroph, from Greek strephein (“to turn”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.