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American  

[aps] / æps /

noun

1. Architecture. a semicircular or polygonal termination or recess in a building, usually vaulted and used especially at the end of a choir in a church.

2. Astronomy. an apsis.

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apse British  

/ æps, ˈæpsɪdəl, æpˈsaɪdəl /

noun

1. Also called: apsis.  a domed or vaulted semicircular or polygonal recess, esp at the east end of a church

2. astronomy another name for apsis

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Other Word Forms

• apsidal adjective
• apsidally adverb

Etymology

Origin of apse

First recorded in 1815–25; variant of apsis

Example Sentences

A room near the church’s apse contains fragments of a sarcophagus believed to be St. Neophytos’s.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

There is still scaffolding around much of the eastern end, and in coming years the outside walls of the apse and sacristy will need treatment.

From BBC • Nov. 29, 2024

The floor plans of Aksumite churches generally followed that of Byzantine churches or basilica, meaning they were oblong in shape with a rounded apse at one end.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

The apse was transported, stone by stone, to the Cloisters in the late 1940s as a long-term loan from the Spanish government.

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2022

There’s too much ornate woodwork here, and the precious layerings of molding and mullion and balustrade and apse, all those thousands of genteel decisions, the studied cuts, just unsettle me.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee