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Possessive marker, indicating that an object belongs to the noun or noun phrase bearing the marker.
Jane's house is bigger than Sarah's.
The cat bit the dog’s tail. (the dog + ’s)
The cat bit the dog with the shaggy fur’s tail. (the dog with the shaggy fur + ’s)
women’s contributions to science
2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:
Before kick-off, a section of Chelsea’s support sadly let themselves and their club down by noisily interrupting the silence held in memory of the Hillsborough disaster and for Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, who collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack during a Serie B game on Saturday.
In the absence of a specified object, used to indicate “the house/place/establishment of”.
We’re going to Luigi’s for dinner tonight. — that is, “Luigi’s house” or “Luigi’s restaurant”
The possessives of names which end in s may be formed using either this suffix (-'s) or bare -' (which see for more). Hence: St. James’s or St. James’, Chris's or Chris', Jesus's or Jesus'. The American Heritage Dictionary (under the entry "possessive") prescribes restricting this to words or names of at least two syllables, such as witness'; in practice, it is found on names of any length, even one syllable. The suffixes used will alter the word's pronunciation; for example:[2]Dickens’ novel/dɪkɪnz nɒvəl/ (identically to (a) Dickens novel), Dickens’s novel/dɪkɪnzɪz nɒvəl/.
To remedy ambiguity or awkwardness in either speech or print, possessives can generally be recast using of: the tails of the dogs, the paths of St. James.
When referring to possessions of multiple people who don't share the same name, the standard, formal way to form the possessive is Jack’s and Jill’s pails. However, it is common to treat the pair of names as a noun phrase and to form the possessive of this instead, using only one ’s: Jack and Jill’s pails.
The use of ’s to make nouns or noun phrases genitive that are seemingly already marked thus by of is widespread in English. It is nearly exclusively used with animate nouns. It may seem redundant, but it can clarify meaning. For example, “painting of the woman” can mean “painting that belongs to the woman” or “painting that depicts the woman”, but “painting of the woman’s” must mean “painting that belongs to the woman”. Though widespread, some speakers find it awkward and suggest it be avoided by rewriting sentences that would require it.
Nouns that look and sound identical in the singular and plural still do when this suffix is attached, so “one moose” becomes “one moose’s” and “two moose” becomes “two moose’s”.
French: de(fr)(after the thing owned and before the owner)
German: -s(de), des(de)m or nder(de)f(genitive, after the thing owned and before the owner, or before the owner and the thing owned), von(de)(after the thing owned and before the owner with dative)
(sometimes proscribed) Used to form the plurals of numerals, letters, some abbreviations and some nouns, usually because the omission of an apostrophe would make the meaning unclear or ambiguous.
There are four 3’s in my phone number.
“Banana” has three a’s and one b. (apostrophe "s" used so that the plural of “a” is not confused with the word “as”)
You can buy CD’s in that shop.
These are the do’s and don’ts. (apostrophe "s" used as “dos” may be misread)
The use of ’s to form plurals of initialisms or numerals is not currently recommended by most authorities, except when the meaning would otherwise be unclear. The use in foreign words was common before the 19th century, but is no longer accepted.[3] The use of the apostrophe in any other plural (as in “apple’s”) — the so-called “greengrocer’s apostrophe” — is proscribed.
(archaic)Used to form the genitive of proper names
Used to form the genitive of proper names under certain circumstances.
Andrea → Andrea’s (to avoid confusion with Andreas → Andreas’)
Usage notes
The use of -'s instead of -s is allowed, according to the German spelling reform of 1996, only when bare -s would be ambiguous (as in the example above). In informal writing it is sometimes used even when there is no ambiguity (e.g. Peter's), but this is proscribed.