What does apostrophe mean?

Q: What does apostrophe mean?

n. A punctuation mark (') used to show that letters or numbers are missing, like in 'she's' for 'she is'.; A punctuation mark (') used to show ownership, like in 'Sam's book' meaning the book belongs to Sam.; A punctuation mark (') used to make letters or numbers plural, like in 'mind your p's and q's'.

apostrophe

🇺🇸 /əˈpɑːstrəfi/ 🇬🇧 /əˈpɒstrəfi/

Frequency

Difficulty

Tags CEFR-B2

noun

A punctuation mark (') used to show that letters or numbers are missing, like in 'she's' for 'she is'.

In the word 'can't', the apostrophe shows that the letter 'n' and 'o' are missing from 'cannot'.

A punctuation mark (') used to show ownership, like in 'Sam's book' meaning the book belongs to Sam.

The apostrophe in 'the dog's toy' shows that the toy belongs to the dog.

A punctuation mark (') used to make letters or numbers plural, like in 'mind your p's and q's'.

Use an apostrophe when writing 'the 1990's' to show it means the years from 1990 to 1999.

translation

A punctuation mark (') used to show that letters or numbers are missing, like in 'she's' for 'she is'.; A punctuation mark (') used to show ownership, like in 'Sam's book' meaning the book belongs to Sam.; A punctuation mark (') used to make letters or numbers plural, like in 'mind your p's and q's'.

Word Forms

Plural apostrophes