Robert F. Jones
Did you know?
Apex entered English from Latin, where it originally meant "a small rod at the top of a flamen's cap." What's a flamen's cap? Flamens were priests who devoted themselves to serving just one of the many ancient Roman gods (for instance, just Jupiter or Mars). Those priests wore distinctive conical caps that English speakers dubbed "flamen's caps." Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dramatist Ben Jonson was one of the few English writers known to have used "apex" in its flamen's-cap sense: "Upon his head a hat of delicate wool, whose top ended in a cone, and was thence called apex."
Examples of apex in a Sentence
Ian Millhiser, Vox, 29 Mar. 2025
National Security Agency advisor Michael Waltz, the former Florida congressman at the apex of the security apparatus keeping this country safe, included The Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg in the Signal chat.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 27 Mar. 2025
Most of the employees at the apex of their careers today went through traditional education, studying subjects like math, physics and geography in a structured, conventionally academic way.
—Dr. Chaouki Kasmi, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
So too would insight into what people at the apex of power in Washington were talking about with one another.
—Niall Stanage, The Hill, 24 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for apex
Cite this Entry
“Apex.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apex. Accessed 5 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
apex
noun
Medical Definition
apex
noun
Share