Word.ws English Dictionary

apses

apses is the plural of apse.

apses is the plural of apsis.

Meaning of apse

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
    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.

Meaning of apsis

Noun

apsis (plural apsides or apses)

  1. A recess or projection, with a dome or vault, at the east end of a church.
    • Like Henry's collegiate church […] the cathedral is a cruciform basilica of the double bay system with four square bays in the central nave, western transoms, a quadrum for the choir, an apsis, and a transept with auxiliary apses.2019, A Companion to Medieval Lübeck, page 96
    Synonyms:
    apse, apside
  2. Either of the points in the elliptical orbit of a planet, comet, or moon where it is closest or furthest from the body it orbits; examples are perihelion, aphelion, perigee, and apogee.
    Synonyms:
    apse, apside

Questions about apses

What is apses the plural of?
Apses is the plural of apse.

Words near apses in the dictionary

  1. apse
  2. apse chapel
  3. apse line
  4. apse lines
  5. apsed
  6. apses
  7. apseudomorph
  8. apseudomorphs
  9. Apsheron
  10. apsidal
  11. apsidal chapel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: apses (page history and authors); apse (page history and authors); apsis (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)-Wodencafe-apses.wav.

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