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apparatus

UK/ˌæp.əˈɹeɪ.təs/US/ˌæp.əˈɹeɪ.təs/
nounB2+4 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #6,817 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: apparatuses

Apparatus is the equipment a job needs, taken as one set. Clamps and stands, a burner, a flask with a tube coming out of the top — the whole arrangement laid out on the bench before the experiment starts.

It is uncountable in most uses: some apparatus, a piece of apparatus, the apparatus was set up. Beyond the lab, gymnastics apparatus means the beam, bars and rings; breathing apparatus is the tank and mask a firefighter carries in. It has a large second life in politics and journalism — the apparatus of the state, the party apparatus — meaning the whole machinery of offices, committees and rules that keeps a thing running. In everyday speech people reach for equipment, gear or kit; apparatus stays in the written and the technical. British speakers say a-puh-RAY-tus, and you will hear a-puh-RAT-us too.

Definitions of apparatus

  1. 1nounapparatusThe set of equipment needed for a particular job or experiment.B2+~40%

    “The apparatus for the titration was already on the bench.”

    formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement

    synonyms: equipment

  2. 2nounlargeThe large fixed equipment used in gymnastics, such as bars, beam and rings.B2~40%

    “The younger group works on the floor before moving to the apparatus.”

  3. 3nounsystemThe system of people, offices and rules through which an organisation or a state operates.C1~15%

    “The whole apparatus of local government went on being paid for.”

    formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement

  4. 4nounorgansA group of organs in the body working together for one purpose.C1~5%

    “Damage to the vocal apparatus can end a singing career.”

    formal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

apparatus is a set of equipment.

Where it comes from

Apparatus came into English straight out of Latin, unchanged — same spelling, same ending, no English shape given to it at all, which is why it sits so awkwardly in the plural. The same Latin word reached other European languages as apparat, and it is that form which turns up in apparatchik: a man of the apparatus, an official of the machine.

  1. Latin

    apparātus

  2. English, today

    apparatus

Learned borrowing from Latin apparātus. Latin apparātus. a doublet of apparat.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space, Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

apparatus in the wild

  • In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus.

    Floor (gymnastics)

  • The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam".

    Balance beam

  • The rings, also known as still rings (in contrast to flying rings), is an artistic gymnastics apparatus and the event that uses it.

    Rings (gymnastics)

  • Some types are also referred to as a compressed air breathing apparatus (CABA) or simply breathing apparatus.

    Self-contained breathing apparatus

  • If designed for use under water, it is also known as a scuba set (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus).

    Self-contained breathing apparatus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.