Other forms: apexes
The apex is the very highest point. The tip of a triangle, the top of a curve, the peak of a career.
Geometry uses it precisely for the point opposite the base of a triangle or cone. Motor racing uses it for the innermost point of a corner, which is the line every driver aims for. The figurative sense means the top of a hierarchy, so the apex of a profession is its summit. Biology has apex predator, meaning one with nothing above it in the food chain. The plural is apexes or apices.
1nounapexThe highest point or tip of something.
“The apex of the roof is just visible from the road.”
2nounachievementThe highest point of achievement or rank.
“He reached the apex of the profession in his forties.”
Latin
apex
English, today
apex
Borrowed from Latin apex. Latin apex (“point, tip, summit”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 35 of A Man Called Ove.
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