Word.ws English Dictionary

apse

/æps/

apse noun: the rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar. Also the obsolete form of apsis.

apse: the rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

apse (plural apses or apsides)

  1. The rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.
    • Holonyms: church, cathedral
    • Meronyms: ambulatory, apse chapels
    Synonyms:
    apsis, apside, chancel, presbytery, sanctuary[Appendix:Glossary
    1. (strictest sense) The interior portion of this section of the church building, excluding the ambulatory and any apse chapels.
  2. A semicircular projection from any building that is similar to a church's apse.
    • The college has an apse that once held a small chapel.
  3. The bishop's seat or throne in ancient churches.
  4. A reliquary: a case in which the relics of saints are kept.

Noun (2)

apse (plural apses)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) An aspen tree.

Also used as

apse is also the obsolete form of apsis.

apse meaning in Persian

apse in Persian

bishop's seat or throne
محراب mehrab, تابوک tābuk

Synonyms of apse

All synonyms of apse

Forms of apse

pluralapses
pluralapsides

Origin of apse

From Latin apsis, hapsis, from Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís, “arch, vault”), from ἅπτω (háptō, “to bind, join”).

Words formed from apse

Phrases with apse

Words that rhyme with apse

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about apse

What does apse mean?
Apse means the rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.
What is apse in Persian?
Apse in Persian is محراب (mehrab), تابوک (tābuk). See Apse meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is apse?
Apse is a noun.
How do you pronounce apse?
Apse is pronounced /æps/.
What is the plural of apse?
The plural of apse is apses.

Words near apse in the dictionary

  1. apsaclines
  2. apsar
  3. apsara
  4. apsaras
  5. apsars
  6. apse
  7. apse chapel
  8. apse line
  9. apse lines
  10. apsed
  11. apses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: apse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-apse.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-apse.wav.

Cite this entry: “apse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/apse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.