I. əˈpästrə(ˌ)fē also -ȯs- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Latin, from Greek apostrophē, literally, turning away, from apo- + strophē turning — more at strophe
1. : the addressing of a person usually not present or of a thing usually personified for rhetorical purposes
an apostrophe to Shakespeare
2. : the arrangement of chloroplasts along the lateral walls of leaf cells — called positive when caused by intense light and negative when by prolonged darkness
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French apostrophe, from Late Latin apostrophus, from Greek apostrophos, from apostrophos turned away, from apostrephein to turn away, from apo- + strephein to turn — more at strophe
: the mark ' or ' used to indicate omission of one or more letters or figures (as in can't for cannot, judg'd for judged, wish'd for wished, mascara'd for mascaraed, '76 for 1776 ), to mark the possessive case of English nouns and of certain English pronouns (as in Bill's, Moses', women's, boys', anyone's ) or the plural of letters (as in two a's ) or of figures (as in three 7's ) and sometimes of words that are not normally nouns (as in no if's or but's ), to set off an inflectional or derivational suffix from a word that is pronounced by uttering the name of each of its letters (as in their IQ's, he OK's it, GOP'er ), or to constitute a terminal quotation mark