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noun/æps/
Etymology From Latin apsis, hapsis, from Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís, “arch, vault”), from ἅπτω (háptō, “to bind, join”).
1
Architecture The rounded east end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.
- Holonyms: church, cathedral
- Meronyms: ambulatory, apse chapels
3 more examples
- Near-synonyms: chancel, presbytery, sanctuary (all broadly synonymous)
- Our private tour of the cathedral even allowed us to walk through the apse, which most tours don't.
- 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; […]1960, Leo Steinberg, San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane: A Study in Multiple Form and Architectural Symbolism:
2
Architecture The interior portion of this section of the church building, excluding the ambulatory and any apse chapels.
Strictest sense
3
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.
4
The bishop's seat or throne in ancient churches.
5
A reliquary: a case in which the relics of saints are kept.
- Derived terms
- apse chapel, apse line, counterapse, synapse