Definition of "apostrophe" []

• The superscript sign ( ' ) used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word, the possessive case, or the plurals of numbers, letters, and abbreviations. (noun)
• The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a speech or composition. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "An apostrophe is missing from “childrens”, and there is a strong case for making “menu” plural, but these lapses are so frequent in signs as to be mundane; it is the appearance of “Al” that makes it irresistible."
• "I guess that being French, the incredibly sophisticated and capricious ways the apostrophe is used in my language has given me full confidence that I would be forgiven whatever I would do in another language."
• "The apostrophe is used when you abbreviate the decade as the '90s (the apostrophe indicates the missing numerals)."