Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
A type of paired quotation mark: ‘ or “ (beginning the quoted material) and ’ or ” (ending it).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Commonwealth, plural-normally
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a punctuation mark used to attribute the enclosed text to someone else
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: quotation mark, quote
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: punctuation, punctuation mark
Narrower terms: single quote, double quotes, scare quote
History
From the appearance of an inverted comma. In lead type, an opening quote is not a separate casting. It is the result of rotating a comma 180°, inverting the comma. It is used singly or as double quotes. Similarly, the closing quotation mark is the apostrophe. Also used singly or as double quotes.
