# apostrophe

Pronunciation: say "uh-POS-truh-fee" US /əˈpɑs.tɹə.fi/, UK /əˈpɒs.tɹə.fi/

## Noun

1. A written character (') serving as a punctuation mark across many languages and, in rare cases, as a diacritical mark.
   - Simple: A small mark like a raised comma, used in writing to show missing letters or to show who owns something.
   - _The editor flagged a missing apostrophe in the contraction._
   - _In most style guides, the apostrophe marks the possessive form of a noun._
2. An exclamatory passage in which a speaker breaks off to address an absent person or a thing directly, as though it could hear.
   - Simple: A moment in a speech or poem where the speaker suddenly talks to someone or something that is not really there.
   - _The eulogy rose to an apostrophe, the mourner speaking directly to the one who had died._
   - _Her sonnet ends with a striking apostrophe, calling on the sea to witness her sorrow._
3. The arrangement of chlorophyll grains lying perpendicular to the outer surface of a plant cell, in contrast to epistrophe, where they spread along that surface.
   - Simple: An arrangement in which the green grains inside a plant cell sit at right angles to its outer wall.
   - _Microscopy revealed a clear apostrophe, the chlorophyll grains aligned perpendicular to the cell wall._
   - _The researchers counted how many cells held their chloroplasts in the apostrophe position rather than in epistrophe._

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — From French apostrophe or Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, 'accent of elision'), a noun use of an adjective from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, 'I turn away'), itself from ἀπό (apó, 'away from') plus στρέφω (stréphō, 'to turn').
**Meaning 2** — From Latin apostrophe, from Ancient Greek ἀποστροφή (apostrophḗ), from the verb ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, 'I turn away'), formed from ἀπό (apó) plus στρέφω (stréphō, 'I turn').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/apostrophe (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).