apogee

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite most distant from the center of the earth.
2. n. The point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited.
3. n. The farthest or highest point; the apex: "The golden age of American sail, which began with the fast clipper ships in 1848, reached its apogee in the Gold Rush years” ( Los Angeles Times).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That point in the orbit of a planet or other heavenly body which is at the greatest distance from the earth; especially, that particular point of the moon's orbit. The ancients regarded the earth as fixed in the center of the universe, and accordingly assigned to the sun, with the planets, an apogee; but now that the sun is recognized as the center of our system, the terms perihelion and aphelion are employed to denote the least and greatest distance of the planets from that orb. Strictly, therefore, the sun is in its apogee when the earth is in its aphelion. In the Ptolemaic astronomy, the mean apogee of the epicycle is the point of the epicycle furthest from the center of the equant; the true apogee of the epicycle is that point of it furthest from the earth; and the fixed apogee of the epicycle is that point of it furthest from the center of the eccentric.
2. n. Figuratively, the highest or most distant point; climax; culmination.

Wiktionary

1. n. astronomy The point, in an orbit about the Earth, that is furthest from the Earth: the apoapsis of an Earth orbiter.
2. n. astronomy, more generally The point, in an orbit about any planet, that is farthest from the planet: the apoapsis of any satellite.
3. n. The point, in any trajectory of an object in space, where it is furthest from the Earth.
4. n. figuratively The highest point.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Astron.) That point in the orbit of the moon which is at the greatest distance from the earth.
2. n. Fig.: The farthest or highest point; culmination.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a final climactic stage
2. n. apoapsis in Earth orbit; the point in its orbit where a satellite is at the greatest distance from the Earth