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See also: apsē

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /æps/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æps
• Homophone: apps

Etymology 1

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

Noun

apse (plural apses or apsides)

1. (architecture) A semicircular projection from a building, especially the rounded east end of a church that contains the altar.
   • 1960, Leo Steinberg, San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane: A Study in Multiple Form and Architectural Symbolism:

     The draughtsman could not have held the sheet with the apse at the tip, for then, instead of shading away from the edge, most of his hatched lines would begin in the uncharted middle ground of a shadeable area, to strike against the contour; […]

2. The bishop's seat or throne in ancient churches.
3. A reliquary, or case in which the relics of saints were kept.
4. (astronomy) Obsolete form of apsis (“the nearest and furthest points to the centre of gravitational attraction for a body in orbit”).

Synonyms

• apside
• apsis

Derived terms

• apse chapel
• apse line
• counterapse
• synapse

Translations

semicircular projection from a building

Albanian: absidë (sq) f, kungë (sq) f, kungore f, ajodhimë (sq) f, shenjtërore (sq) f Bulgarian: аспида (aspida) Catalan: absis (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 半圓形後殿 / 半圆形后殿 Czech: apsida (cs) f Danish: apsis m, korrunding m Dutch: apsis (nl) f Esperanto: absido Finnish: kuori (fi), apsis (fi), absidi French: abside (fr) f Galician: ábsida (gl) Georgian: აფსიდა (ka) (apsida) German: Apsis (de) f Greek: αψίδα (el) f (apsída) Hungarian: apszis (hu) Irish: cúlbhá f Italian: abside (it) f Manx: apse m Norwegian: apsis m, korrunding m Polish: apsyda (pl) f, absyda (pl) f Portuguese: abside (pt) f Romanian: (architecture) absidă (ro) f Russian: апси́да (ru) f (apsída) Slovak: apsida (sk) f Slovene: apsida (sl) f Spanish: ábside (es) m, (rare) ábsida (es) f Swedish: absid (sv) c

bishop's seat or throne

Finnish: piispanistuin Irish: cathaoir easpaig f Manx: apse m Persian: محراب (fa) (mehrab), تابوک (fa) (tābuk)

case in which the relics were kept — see reliquary

astronomy: apsis — see apsis

obsolete or dialectal: aspen tree — see aspen

Etymology 2

Noun

apse (plural apses)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) An aspen tree.

 apse on Latvian Wikipedia

Anagrams

• pase, SEPA, Peas, Paes, PEAs, spae, peas, APEs, Sepa, EAPs, EPAs, apes, PESA