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single quotes

American  

plural noun

  1. one pair of single quotation marks, written as (‘ ’) and used especially for a quotation within another quotation.

    He said, “I told you to say ‘Open, sesame’ when you want to enter the mountain.”

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Example Sentences

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In the story "The Village Doctor," the use of double and single quotes was partially omitted, and inconsistent with the balance of the book; this has been corrected.

From Project Gutenberg

In the 1870 text, dialogue has “modern” punctuation using single quotes: ‘To this place,’ said Melissa, ‘have I taken....’

From Project Gutenberg

Page 7: Double quotes inside double quotes in Hallam quotation replaced with single quotes.

From Project Gutenberg

That is, that the name be placed in single quotes and not italicized e.g.,

From Project Gutenberg

Page 14: Double quotes inside double quotes amended to single quotes.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.