Apis

American  

[ey-pis] / ˈeɪ pɪs /

noun

Egyptian Religion.

1. a sacred bull worshiped at Memphis: identified originally with Ptah and later assimilated with Osiris to form the Ptolemaic Serapis.

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Apis British  

/ ˈɑːpɪs /

noun

1. (in ancient Egypt) a sacred bull worshipped at Memphis

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Etymology

Origin of Apis

First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin Āpis, from Greek Âpis, from Egyptian ḥjpw

Example Sentences

Much of the movement to "save the bees" in the U.S. has been focused on a single species: Apis mellifera, the European honeybee.

From Salon • Apr. 17, 2025

The western honey bee, Apis mellifera, stores large quantities of food in the form of bee bread, which is used as a main food source for the hive.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2024

A fusion of the Egyptian deities Osiris and Apis and the Greek deities Zeus and Helios, Serapis allowed the very different subjects of Ptolemaic Egypt to find common ground in worship.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Research has demonstrated that there is competition for forage between Apis mellifera and native bees and that the relationship is complex.

From Washington Post • Apr. 17, 2023

Serapis was an amalgam of Apis, the native bull god, and Osiris, the anthropomorphic lord of the dead—an instant “designer god” fashioned by the Ptolemies to give Greeks and Egyptians a deity in common.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro