An apostrophe is a punctuation mark used for omission and possessive forms in the supplied evidence; here it is one of four similarly shaped marks.
An apostrophe is a punctuation mark. The supplied Merriam-Webster result describes the mark as being used to indicate omitted letters or numerals and the possessive case. Cambridge likewise describes it as a mark showing that a letter or number has been omitted or appearing before or after s to show possession. The official puzzle uses APOSTROPHE as the name of a written mark in SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS.
APOSTROPHE is one of the four marks in the August 20, 2026 Connections puzzle.
Usage and meaning
The supplied research supports two central written uses. An apostrophe can indicate omitted letters or numerals, and it can mark the possessive case. The result from Dictionary.com gives “we’ll” as an example of a contraction standing for “we will,” with the apostrophe replacing missing letters. The Cambridge result also describes the punctuation mark in terms of omission and possessive writing.
These descriptions provide enough support for ordinary examples without extending the article into a complete style manual. The mark can be represented by the visible characters shown in the supplied Wikipedia result: ’ and ‘. That result calls the apostrophe a punctuation mark and says it can sometimes be a diacritical mark in languages using the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets.
In a short sentence, the reader can identify the mark by asking what it signals. If letters have been omitted, the apostrophe occupies the relevant position. If the construction shows possession, the mark appears in connection with the possessive form. Those are separate supported functions of the same named mark.
Natural examples
These illustrative sentences show the supported functions:
- “We’ll meet later” uses an apostrophe where letters are omitted from “we will.”
- “Alex’s notebook” uses an apostrophe in a possessive construction.
- “The mark can appear as ‘ or ’” describes the forms displayed in the supplied result.
- “APOSTROPHE names a mark on the puzzle board.”
The examples are composed for clarity and are not quotations from the cited research. Their purpose is to separate the word’s definition from its particular role in the puzzle: its writing functions explain the term, while the puzzle category emphasizes a similarity of shape.
A common mistake
APOSTROPHE can be confused with other short marks because its shape may resemble them in a line of text. The puzzle does not require every mark to have the same grammatical use. Its official relationship is SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS, so the relevant clue is the named written mark and its shape relationship to CEDILLA, COMMA, and OKINA.
Do not use the apostrophe’s omission or possessive functions to define the other three entries. The supplied evidence gives separate meanings for those marks. In particular, the okina is identified by its own evidence as a Hawaiian letter for a glottal stop, not as an apostrophe performing an English punctuation function.
Connections context
In the verified board, APOSTROPHE is grouped with CEDILLA, COMMA, and OKINA under SIMILARLY SHAPED TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS. The exact referent here is the written apostrophe mark. COMMA and APOSTROPHE are both named punctuation marks in the supplied evidence, while the complete official group is broader and rests on similar shape.
The dated board is available in the August 20, 2026 solved Connections board.
Group logic
When a board contains several words naming marks, check whether the proposed category describes appearance rather than one shared punctuation rule. Here, APOSTROPHE supplies a compact mark name; CEDILLA names a mark below a letter, COMMA names a punctuation mark, and OKINA names a Hawaiian letter. The official source assigns all four to the same visual category, so no claim of identical function is necessary.
Use the complete explanation in the August 20, 2026 Connections group explanation.