MEANING
1. To address an absent person, an abstraction, or an inanimate thing as though it could hear or respond.
2. To place apostrophes in or on written forms.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- apostrophize the dead
- apostrophize a city
On the page
The poem apostrophized the sea as a witness to the loss.
She apostrophized the dead without asking the reader to believe they answered.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- apostrophize
- Past tense
- apostrophized
- Past participle
- apostrophized
- Present participle
- apostrophizing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- apostrophize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are apostrophizing
- Present perfect
- have/has apostrophized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been apostrophizing
- Past
- apostrophized
- Past continuous
- was/were apostrophizing
- Past perfect
- had apostrophized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been apostrophizing
- Future
- will apostrophize
- Future continuous
- will be apostrophizing
- Future perfect
- will have apostrophized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been apostrophizing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: apostrophize; apostrophizes; apostrophized; apostrophized; apostrophizing Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: apostrophizes.
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