Pronunciation guide
How to pronounce apostrophe
uh-POSS-truh-fee - four syllables, stress on 'POSS', ending in '-fee'
US/əˈpɑs.tɹə.fi/
əpɑstɹəfi
UK/əˈpɒs.tɹə.fi/
əpɒstɹəfi
New to IPA symbols? Read the IPA guide.
Common mistake
Not 'AP-uh-strofe' rhyming with 'strophe'; it is four syllables ending in '-fee'.
What “apostrophe” means
The text character ', which serves as a punctuation mark in various languages and as a diacritical mark in certain rare contexts.
In a sentence
- The apostrophe mark ' is used in many languages as a punctuation symbol.
- In old plays, an apostrophe is sometimes used in dialogue to address a absent or imaginary listener.
Definitions and examples are derived from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, then edited by QuickPronounce. Pronunciation data draws on CMUdict.