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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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When these were found, the inner quotes were changed to single quotes for increased clarity.

From Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by H. Bencraft Joly

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

From Tolstoy on Shakespeare A Critical Essay on Shakespeare by V. G. (Vladimir Grigorevich) Chertkov

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

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953 by Northern Nut Growers Association

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 Tales from Blackwood Volume 5 by Various

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

From Early Theories of Translation by Flora Ross Amos

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