What does "apostrophize" mean?

To deliver an apostrophe (a speech, typically exclamatory) to someone, especially someone not present in person as a participant in the conversation, even someone imaginary.

What is a synonym for "apostrophize"?

Common synonyms include: accost, address, apostrophise, appeal to, approach, bespeak.

Apostrophize

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To deliver an apostrophe (a speech, typically exclamatory) to someone, especially someone not present in person as a participant in the conversation, even someone imaginary. transitive
"[S]he resumed her former occupation, and continued to soliloquize and apostrophize her absent hand-maidens, without even appearing sensible of his presence."
2
use an apostrophe wordnet
3
To add one or more apostrophe characters to text to indicate missing letters.

Synonyms

All synonyms

accost address apostrophise appeal to approach bespeak

Example

More examples

"[S]he resumed her former occupation, and continued to soliloquize and apostrophize her absent hand-maidens, without even appearing sensible of his presence."

Etymology

From apostrophe + -ize.

Related phrases

mis-apostrophize

More for "apostrophize"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.