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plural apses · plural apsides

1. architectureThe rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.

   Holonyms: church, cathedral

   4 more examples

   Meronyms: ambulatory, apse chapels

   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

   Synonyms: apsis, apside, chancel, presbytery, sanctuary[Appendix:Glossary

   1. strictest sensearchitectureThe interior portion of this section of the church building, excluding the ambulatory and any apse chapels.

      Synonyms: apsis, apside, chancel, presbytery, sanctuary[Appendix:Glossary

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.
5. obsoleteastronomyObsolete form of apsis (“the nearest and furthest points to the centre of gravitational attraction for a body in orbit”).

   Synonyms: apsis, apside

plural apses

1. dialectalobsoleteAn aspen tree.