From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Apostrophe \A*pos"tro*phe\, n. [(1) L., fr. Gr. ? a turning
away, fr. ? to turn away; ? from + ? to turn. (2) F., fr. L.
apostrophus apostrophe, the turning away or omitting of a
letter, Gr. ?.]
1. (Rhet.) A figure of speech by which the orator or writer
suddenly breaks off from the previous method of his
discourse, and addresses, in the second person, some
person or thing, absent or present; as, Milton's
apostrophe to Light at the beginning of the third book of
"Paradise Lost."
[1913 Webster]
2. (Gram.) The contraction of a word by the omission of a
letter or letters, which omission is marked by the
character ['] placed where the letter or letters would
have been; as, call'd for called.
[1913 Webster]
3. The mark ['] used to denote that a word is contracted (as
in ne'er for never, can't for can not), and as a sign of
the possessive, singular and plural; as, a boy's hat,
boys' hats. In the latter use it originally marked the
omission of the letter e.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The apostrophe is used to mark the plural of figures
and letters; as, two 10's and three a's. It is also
employed to mark the close of a quotation.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
apostrophe
n 1: address to an absent or imaginary person
2: the mark (') used to indicate the omission of one or more
letters from a printed word
From French-English FreeDict Dictionary ver. 0.3.4 [fd-fra-eng]:
apostrophe /apostʀɔf/
apostrophe
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