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The rounded east end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.

Noun architecture

  1. The rounded east end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.
    • Holonyms: church, cathedral
    • Meronyms: ambulatory, apse chapels
    • Near-synonyms: chancel, presbytery, sanctuary (all broadly synonymous)

    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.

      Synonyms: apsis apside chancel presbytery sanctuary[Appendix:Glossary

      Related: ambulatory apse chapel

  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.

    Coordinate Terms: see

  4. A reliquary: a case in which the relics of saints are kept.
  5. Obsolete form of apsis (“the nearest and furthest points to the centre of gravitational attraction for a body in orbit”).

    Synonyms: apsis apside

Origin

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

Forms

apses apsides

Derived

apse chapel apse line counterapse synapse

Noun dialectal, obsolete

  1. An aspen tree.

Forms

apses