Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - inverted comma

~ n C usually plural BrE 1 one of a pair of marks (" ") or (` ') that are put at the beginning and end of a written word, sentence etc to show that someone said it or wrote it, or when writing the title of a book, song etc; quotation mark 2 in inverted commas spoken used to show that a word you are using to describe something is only what it is usually called, and not what you think it really is  (Her friends, in inverted commas, all disappeared when she was in trouble.)