apex

From Latin apex (“point, tip, summit”), from apō (“fasten, attach”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈeɪˌpɛks/
• Rhymes: -ɛks

apex (plural apices or apexes)

1. The "highest" or the greatest point of something.

   the apex of the building

2. (figuratively) The moment of greatest success, expansion, etc.

   the apex of civilization

   • 2002, Jeffrey Rowland, WIGU adventures

     It would be an intense disgust. The absolute apex of teen angst.

3. (geometry) The topmost vertex of a cone or pyramid (in their conventional orientation).
4. (chiefly anatomy) The "pointed" fine end of something.
   1. The lowest part of the human heart.
   2. The deepest part of a tooth's root.
5. (botany) The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ opposed to the end where it is attached to its support; the tip.
6. (astronomy) The point on the celestial sphere toward which the sun appears to move relative to nearby stars.
7. (physics) The lowest point on a pendant drop of a liquid.
8. (mining, US) The end or edge of a vein nearest the surface.
9. (typography) A diacritic in Classical Latin that resembles and gave rise to the acute.
10. (typography) A diacritic in Middle Vietnamese that indicates /ŋ͡m/.

• (highest point): peak, top, summit
• (moment of greatest success, expansion, etc): acme, culmination, height, peak, pinnacle
• (pointed end): end, tip
• See also Thesaurus:apex

• apex in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• apex in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• apex at OneLook Dictionary Search

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“to join, fit”). Cognate with Latin apō.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.peks/, [ˈa.pɛks]

apex m (genitive apicis); third declension

1. summit
2. top
3. cap of a priest (flamen); hat, helmet, crown
4. apex, macron (long mark over a vowel)
5. vocative singular of apex

Third declension.

• apex in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• apex in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• apex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• apex in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apex in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin