diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
index 0cb46a5164674..3082c2278966d 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@ Other enhancements
 - :func:`pandas.read_excel` can now auto detect .xlsb files (:issue:`35416`)
 - :meth:`.Rolling.sum`, :meth:`.Expanding.sum`, :meth:`.Rolling.mean`, :meth:`.Expanding.mean`, :meth:`.Rolling.median`, :meth:`.Expanding.median`, :meth:`.Rolling.max`, :meth:`.Expanding.max`, :meth:`.Rolling.min`, and :meth:`.Expanding.min` now support ``Numba`` execution with the ``engine`` keyword (:issue:`38895`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.apply` can now accept NumPy unary operators as strings, e.g. ``df.apply("sqrt")``, which was already the case for :meth:`Series.apply` (:issue:`39116`)
-- :meth:`DataFrame.apply` can now accept non-callable :class:`DataFrame` properties as strings, e.g. ``df.apply("size")``, which was already the case for :meth:`Series.apply` (:issue:`39116`)
+- :meth:`DataFrame.apply` can now accept non-callable DataFrame properties as strings, e.g. ``df.apply("size")``, which was already the case for :meth:`Series.apply` (:issue:`39116`)
+- :meth:`Series.apply` can now accept list-like or dictionary-like arguments that aren't lists or dictionaries, e.g. ``ser.apply(np.array(["sum", "mean"]))``, which was already the case for :meth:`DataFrame.apply` (:issue:`39140`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/pandas/core/aggregation.py b/pandas/core/aggregation.py
index 72a98da44428b..2145551833e90 100644
--- a/pandas/core/aggregation.py
+++ b/pandas/core/aggregation.py
@@ -704,7 +704,8 @@ def agg_dict_like(
     # if we have a dict of any non-scalars
     # eg. {'A' : ['mean']}, normalize all to
     # be list-likes
-    if any(is_aggregator(x) for x in arg.values()):
+    # Cannot use arg.values() because arg may be a Series
+    if any(is_aggregator(x) for _, x in arg.items()):
         new_arg: AggFuncTypeDict = {}
         for k, v in arg.items():
             if not isinstance(v, (tuple, list, dict)):
diff --git a/pandas/core/apply.py b/pandas/core/apply.py
index f3e759610b784..f7c7220985138 100644
--- a/pandas/core/apply.py
+++ b/pandas/core/apply.py
@@ -195,6 +195,20 @@ def maybe_apply_str(self) -> Optional[FrameOrSeriesUnion]:
                 self.kwds["axis"] = self.axis
         return self.obj._try_aggregate_string_function(f, *self.args, **self.kwds)
 
+    def maybe_apply_multiple(self) -> Optional[FrameOrSeriesUnion]:
+        """
+        Compute apply in case of a list-like or dict-like.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        result: Series, DataFrame, or None
+            Result when self.f is a list-like or dict-like, None otherwise.
+        """
+        # Note: dict-likes are list-like
+        if not is_list_like(self.f):
+            return None
+        return self.obj.aggregate(self.f, self.axis, *self.args, **self.kwds)
+
 
 class FrameApply(Apply):
     obj: DataFrame
@@ -248,12 +262,9 @@ def agg_axis(self) -> Index:
     def apply(self) -> FrameOrSeriesUnion:
         """ compute the results """
         # dispatch to agg
-        if is_list_like(self.f) or is_dict_like(self.f):
-            # pandas\core\apply.py:144: error: "aggregate" of "DataFrame" gets
-            # multiple values for keyword argument "axis"
-            return self.obj.aggregate(  # type: ignore[misc]
-                self.f, axis=self.axis, *self.args, **self.kwds
-            )
+        result = self.maybe_apply_multiple()
+        if result is not None:
+            return result
 
         # all empty
         if len(self.columns) == 0 and len(self.index) == 0:
@@ -587,16 +598,14 @@ def __init__(
 
     def apply(self) -> FrameOrSeriesUnion:
         obj = self.obj
-        func = self.f
-        args = self.args
-        kwds = self.kwds
 
         if len(obj) == 0:
             return self.apply_empty_result()
 
         # dispatch to agg
-        if isinstance(func, (list, dict)):
-            return obj.aggregate(func, *args, **kwds)
+        result = self.maybe_apply_multiple()
+        if result is not None:
+            return result
 
         # if we are a string, try to dispatch
         result = self.maybe_apply_str()
diff --git a/pandas/tests/series/apply/test_series_apply.py b/pandas/tests/series/apply/test_series_apply.py
index b8c6291415ef7..a5c40af5c7f35 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/series/apply/test_series_apply.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/series/apply/test_series_apply.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import is_number
 
 import pandas as pd
-from pandas import DataFrame, Index, MultiIndex, Series, isna, timedelta_range
+from pandas import DataFrame, Index, MultiIndex, Series, concat, isna, timedelta_range
 import pandas._testing as tm
 from pandas.core.base import SpecificationError
 
@@ -827,3 +827,75 @@ def test_apply_to_timedelta(self):
         b = Series(list_of_strings).apply(pd.to_timedelta)  # noqa
         # Can't compare until apply on a Series gives the correct dtype
         # assert_series_equal(a, b)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "ops, names",
+    [
+        ([np.sum], ["sum"]),
+        ([np.sum, np.mean], ["sum", "mean"]),
+        (np.array([np.sum]), ["sum"]),
+        (np.array([np.sum, np.mean]), ["sum", "mean"]),
+    ],
+)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("how", ["agg", "apply"])
+def test_apply_listlike_reducer(string_series, ops, names, how):
+    # GH 39140
+    expected = Series({name: op(string_series) for name, op in zip(names, ops)})
+    expected.name = "series"
+    result = getattr(string_series, how)(ops)
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "ops",
+    [
+        {"A": np.sum},
+        {"A": np.sum, "B": np.mean},
+        Series({"A": np.sum}),
+        Series({"A": np.sum, "B": np.mean}),
+    ],
+)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("how", ["agg", "apply"])
+def test_apply_dictlike_reducer(string_series, ops, how):
+    # GH 39140
+    expected = Series({name: op(string_series) for name, op in ops.items()})
+    expected.name = string_series.name
+    result = getattr(string_series, how)(ops)
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "ops, names",
+    [
+        ([np.sqrt], ["sqrt"]),
+        ([np.abs, np.sqrt], ["absolute", "sqrt"]),
+        (np.array([np.sqrt]), ["sqrt"]),
+        (np.array([np.abs, np.sqrt]), ["absolute", "sqrt"]),
+    ],
+)
+def test_apply_listlike_transformer(string_series, ops, names):
+    # GH 39140
+    with np.errstate(all="ignore"):
+        expected = concat([op(string_series) for op in ops], axis=1)
+        expected.columns = names
+        result = string_series.apply(ops)
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "ops",
+    [
+        {"A": np.sqrt},
+        {"A": np.sqrt, "B": np.exp},
+        Series({"A": np.sqrt}),
+        Series({"A": np.sqrt, "B": np.exp}),
+    ],
+)
+def test_apply_dictlike_transformer(string_series, ops):
+    # GH 39140
+    with np.errstate(all="ignore"):
+        expected = concat({name: op(string_series) for name, op in ops.items()})
+        expected.name = string_series.name
+        result = string_series.apply(ops)
+        tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)