apse
/æps/noun
apse is spelled A-P-S-E: 4 letters. It appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, apse means “The rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of apse is apses or apsides.
How many letters and syllables are in apse?
| Letters | 4: A-P-S-E |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 5 million words; the 63,645th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is apse?
Apse appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 63,645th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce apse?
- /æps/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-apse.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-apse.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with apse?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as apse.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: pase.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of apse
- apses plural
- apsides plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does apse mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The rounded east (liturgical east) end of a church that contains or is behind the altar.
Holonyms: church, cathedral
- 2
The interior portion of this section of the church building, excluding the ambulatory and any apse chapels.
- 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.
- 6
obsoleteObsolete form of apsis (“the nearest and furthest points to the centre of gravitational attraction for a body in orbit”).
- 7
obsoleteAn aspen tree.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Apse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense semicircular projection from a building:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does apse come from?
From Latin apsis, hapsis, from Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís, “arch, vault”), from ἅπτω (háptō, “to bind, join”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).