apostrophus
apostrophus noun: the omission of a vowel or syllable from a word, usually indicated by the apostrophe symbol ( ' ). examples: 'til, can't.
Noun
apostrophus (plural apostrophi)
- The omission of a vowel or syllable from a word, usually indicated by the apostrophe symbol ( ' ). examples: 'til, can't
- Vowels suffer also this apostrophus before the consonant h.1640, Ben Jonson, The English Grammar: Book 2: Of Syntax
- Not that any examples are wanting to prove that the ancients did use the apostrophus in prose; for it was scarecely possible for them not to do so in many instances;1824, August Matthiä, Copious Greek Grammar - Volume 1, page xxxvi
- The apostrophe symbol used to mark this elision.
- The apostrophus or mark of contraction, is the same with the comma, onely the difference is of place; for, this stands not in the line, but over the upper part thereof, where the contraction is:1644, Richard Hodges, The English Primrose
- In the Greek, as in other languages, a short vowel at the end of a word before another vowel, is thrown out by elision, and the apostrophus ' is placed as a mark or sign over the empty space;1833, Philipp Buttmann, Edmund Henry Barker, Dr. Philip Buttmann's Intermediate Or Larger Greek Grammar, page 46
- An open notehead ( ~ ) or an apostrophe ( ' ) used as a neume to mark a low, unaccented syllable at the beginning of a phrase or a short quick syllable
- You find not the apostrophus, and so miss the accent. Let me supervise the canzonet.1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost
- In the early Graduals Benevento VI. 38 and 40, the apostrophus is common in syllabic passages in sequences, tropes and prosulae.2009, Iain Fenlon, Early Music History, page 66
- The symbol 'Ↄ', used in Roman numerals to indicate multiplication by 10.
- In every multiplication with ten a fresh apostrophus is added; thus IↃↃ = 5000, IↃↃↃ = 50,000.1862, Richard Hiley, The Elements of Latin Grammar, page 26
- The annexing of the apostrophus or inverted C (Ↄ) to IↃ makes its value ten times greater;1878, Ethan Allen Andrews, Grammar of the Latin Language, page 72
Examples of apostrophus in a sentence
- Out of one word, the apostrophus is most usual in poesie;1865, Alexander Hume, Henry Benjamin Wheatley, Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue:
- This apocope is denoted by the apostrophus ( ' ),1842, George Knox Gillespie, The Formative Greek Grammar, page 4:
- In transcriptions from Ben 34, I have not distinguished the apostrophus from regular notes.2010, Rebecca Maloy, Inside the Offertory: Aspects of Chronology and Transmission, page iv:
- The symbol Ↄ, known as the apostrophus, might be repeated one or more times after IↃ , each Ↄ making the number ten times greater, as IↃↃ = 5000, IↃↃↃↃ = 500,000.2002, Allied Chambers, The Chambers Dictionary:
Forms of apostrophus
| plural | apostrophi |
|---|
Origin of apostrophus
From Latin apostrophus.
Questions about apostrophus
- What does apostrophus mean?
- Apostrophus means the omission of a vowel or syllable from a word, usually indicated by the apostrophe symbol ( ' ). examples: 'til, can't.
- How do you use apostrophus in a sentence?
- Out of one word, the apostrophus is most usual in poesie;
- What part of speech is apostrophus?
- Apostrophus is a noun.
- What is the plural of apostrophus?
- The plural of apostrophus is apostrophi.
Words near apostrophus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: apostrophus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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