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apostrophe

noun/əˈpɒstrəfi/

C2CEFR level
80/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister

A rhetorical address to an absent person, abstraction or thing as though it could reply.

The sonnet opens with an apostrophe to Death, commanded not to be proud.

Topic: Literature & the arts in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: Literature & the arts