Noun

(en noun)

(astronomy) The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is furthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.

(astronomy, more generally) The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is farthest from the planet: the apoapsis of any satellite.

* 1995 , John H. Rogers, The Giant Planet Jupiter , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-41008-3, page 335:

Conjunctions of I and II [Io and Europa] occur when they are near perigee and apogee respectively; conjunctions of II and III [Europa and Ganymede] occur when II [Europa] is near perigee.

* 2002 , Serge Brunier, Solar System Voyage , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-80724-1, page 36:

The resolution of the images obtained by this American probe [Messenger] will depend on its altitude [above Mercury] at any one time: about ten meters at perigee (200km altitude), but only one 1 km at apogee (15000km).

* 2010 , Ruth Walker and Mary M. Shaffrey et al., Exploring Space: The High Frontier , Jones & Bartlett Learning, ISBN 978-0-7637-8961-9, page 129:

[Nereid’s] apogee —farthest point from Neptune—is five times the distance of its perigee—its closest point.

(possibly, archaic, outside, astrology) The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is furthest from the Earth.

(figuratively) The highest point.

* 2004 March 22, :

The cult of the chief executive reached its apogee in the nineteen-nineties, a period when C.E.O.s seemed not so much to serve their companies as to embody them.

* '>citation

Noun

(apotheoses)

The fact or action of becoming or making into a god; deification.

* 1986 , SRF Price, Rituals and Power , p. 75:

In Rome itself the official position was clear: the apotheosis of the emperor took place only after his death; this had to be officially recognized by the Senate, and only then did the emperor become a divus with an official cult.

* 2002 , CE Newlands, Statius' Silvae and the Politics of Empire , p. 176:

As a former mortal who underwent apotheosis , Hercules was important to the emperors.

Glorification, exaltation; crediting someone or something with extraordinary power or status.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.}}

* 1974', Per Lord Hailsham, ' Smedleys Ltd v Breed [1974]2 All ER 21(HL) at 24 :

Thereafter, the caterpillar achieved a sort of posthumous apotheosis . From local authority to the Dorchester magistrates, from the Dorchester magistrates to a Divisional Court presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of England, from the Lord Chief Justice to the House of Lords, the immolated insect has at length plodded its methodical way to the highest tribunal in the land.

A glorified example or ideal; the apex or pinnacle (of a concept or belief).

* 1925 , (William Carlos Williams), '(Edgar Allan Poe)', In The American Grain , 1990, p. 232:

In his despair he had nowhere to turn. It is the very apotheosis of the place and the time.

The best moment or highest point in the development of something, for example of a life or career; the apex, culmination, or climax (of a development).

Loosely, release from earthly life, ascension to heaven; death.

* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) :

Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing — straight up, leaps thy apotheosis !

(psychology) The latent entity that mediates between a person's psyche and their thoughts. The id, ego and superego in Freudian Psychology are examples of this.