From the Latin, for something that is "placed near" another thing.

It is used as a grammatical category to identify a word that

• usually stands near the noun to which it is apposed
• adds information to the noun to which it is apposed
• identifies the same thing as the noun to which it is apposed
• has the same case as the noun to which it is apposed.

For example, in the sentence "Caesar, the Emperor, died," the words Caesar and Emperor refer to the same person, and are said to be in apposition. One easy way to remember the meaning of this term is to note a similar word, which has the opposite meaning. That word is "opposition." Two words that are in "opposition" (such as king and slave) don't refer to the same thing; two words in apposition must refer to the same thing.