apex
noun
the tip, point, or vertex; summit.
apex
1 American
[ey-peks]
/ ˈeɪ pɛks /
noun
-
apexes,
plural
-
apices
plural
-
the tip, point, or vertex; summit.
-
climax; peak; acme.
His election to the presidency was the apex of his career.
-
Astronomy. solar apex.
APEX
2
American
[ey-peks]
/ ˈeɪ pɛks /
noun
apex
1
British
/ ˈeɪpɛks /
noun
-
the highest point; vertex
-
the pointed end or tip of something
-
a pinnacle or high point, as of a career, etc
-
Also called: solar apex. astronomy the point on the celestial sphere, lying in the constellation Hercules, towards which the sun appears to move at a velocity of 20 kilometres per second relative to the nearest stars
APEX
2
British
/ ˈeɪpɛks /
acronym
-
Advance Purchase Excursion: a reduced airline or long-distance rail fare that must be paid a specified number of days in advance
-
(in Britain) Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical, and Computer Staff
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of apex1
Borrowed into English from Latin around 1595–1605
Origin of APEX2
First recorded in 1970–75; A(dvance) P(urchase) Ex(cursion)
Explanation
When there's no mountain left to climb and nothing but blue sky above, you know you've reached the highest peak — the apex. Apex can mean the highest point in a literal sense, like climbing to the apex of the Eiffel Tower for a fabulous view of Paris. It also can be used to mean the highest point in a figurative sense. An actor who wins an Oscar can say she's reached the apex of her career. If you're describing more than one high point, you could add an -es to form the plural apexes, but apices would also be correct. And if you're a botanist, you'd probably use apex to describe the tip of a flower or leaf.
Vocabulary lists containing apex
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, Part Four
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Ender's Game
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50th Anniversary of the March on Washington: "Trying to Inspire a New Generation" by Trip Gabriel
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Killer whales are highly intelligent apex predators and have been known to play with their prey and deploy sophisticated tactics to ensnare them.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Antonelli said: "From the apex after we had no deployment, so it was easy. It was flat all the way. It was not like last year."
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
As apex predators, they keep the population of midlevel predators in check, allowing vegetation and other wildlife species lower on the food chain to thrive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Gas prices were near an apex at the time, and the California Lutheran University student estimates the duo spent $500 to keep his Mazda CX-5 sport-utility vehicle going.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
To tell the truth, I wasn’t super-high on this idea, since Lena was not only a cheerleader but also the apex of the pyramid.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
In Montreal, the West Germans argued that the new fares, especially APEX, would only add confusion to the tangle of transatlantic fares already in effect.
From Time Magazine Archive
Under APEX, as the ar rangement is called, passengers who buy their tickets 90 days ahead of time would receive substantial fare reductions.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the next few days, more than 100 Grunwick employees joined APEX.
From Time Magazine Archive
“But you’re busy, you’re consumed. Gone on the early years of just hitting the apexes and enjoying the speed.”
From Washington Times ● May 22, 2022
The result stands among the vertiginous apexes of film history, with Sewell’s editing providing the rhythmic emotion that cements the film’s status as one of the greatest of all time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2021
The average plant leaf grows from the plant’s apexes, or the tippy-tops of its stem and branches.
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2021
The method of escape had been worthy of the best player in baseball, a 26-year-old already building a case as an all-timer, a two-time MVP still seeking — and reaching — new apexes.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 16, 2018
What do you think of a law that will take away a man's mine because it apexes on another man's claim?
From Rimrock Jones by Dane Coolidge
It also exhibits a remarkable asymmetric condition of the neural spines where they alternate from having transversely compressed apices to apices that are expanded to the right.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 10, 2013
The carbon atoms he figures at the apices of a hexagon, the benzene "ring."
From Time Magazine Archive
Many species have the extreme apices of the segments pale, but with the apical integument so very thin, often looking nearly transparent and membranous, that its development would be very rapid.
From Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants and Other Stinging Insects by Edward Saunders
In these instances most of the flowers were abortive, but a few were fertile, which he attributes to the dust of the apices having been wafted by the wind from other plants.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 3 "Borgia, Lucrezia" to "Bradford, John" by Various
Length in proportion to the breadth of the capitulum variable, owing to the varying degree to which the scuta and terga have their apices produced.
From A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia With Figures of all the Species. by Charles Darwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
