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apogee

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "apogee", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "apogee" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "apogee" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

apogee is aEnglishnoun. It means: The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is farthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter. Pronounced /ˈæp.ə.d͡ʒi/.

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Key facts for apogee
PropertyValue
Headwordapogee
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈæp.ə.d͡ʒi/
Letters6
Frequency rank#48,594
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of apogee in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for apogee is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæp.ə.d͡ʒi/. Corpus data places it at rank #48,594 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for apogee, with forms such as "aopgee", "apgoee", and "apoege". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French apogée, from Latin apogaeum, apogēum, from Ancient Greek ἀπόγειον (apógeion, “away from Earth”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is apogee, spelled A-P-O-G-E-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is farthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.
  2. 2
    The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is farthest from the planet: the apoapsis of any satellite.
  3. 3
    The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is farthest from the Earth.
  4. 4
    The highest point.

Etymology

From Middle French apogée, from Latin apogaeum, apogēum, from Ancient Greek ἀπόγειον (apógeion, “away from Earth”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”).

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: aopgee,apgoee,apoege,apoge,apoggee,appogee,paogee

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for apogee

Misspelling Variants of "apogee"

aopgee6apgoee6apoege6apoge5apoggee7appogee7paogee6
Misspelling Variants of "apogee"

Frequency rank: #48,594 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "apogee"?
"apogee" is spelled A-P-O-G-E-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈæp.ə.d͡ʒi/.
What does "apogee" mean?
As a noun, "apogee" means: The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is farthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.
What are common misspellings of "apogee"?
Common misspellings include "aopgee", "apgoee", "apoege", "apoge", "apoggee". The correct spelling is "apogee".
How do you pronounce "apogee"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "apogee" is /ˈæp.ə.d͡ʒi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "apogee"?
From Middle French apogée, from Latin apogaeum, apogēum, from Ancient Greek ἀπόγειον (apógeion, “away from Earth”), from ἀπό (apó, “away”) + γῆ (gê, “Earth”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.