apartment
Americannoun
-
a room or a group of related rooms, among similar sets in one building, designed for use as a dwelling.
-
a building containing or made up of such rooms.
-
any separated room or group of rooms in a house or other dwelling.
We heard cries from an apartment at the back of the house.
-
British. apartments, a set of rooms used as a dwelling by one person or one family.
noun
-
(often plural) any room in a building, usually one of several forming a suite, esp one that is spacious and well furnished and used as living accommodation, offices, etc
-
-
another name (esp US and Canadian) for flat 2
-
( as modifier )
apartment building
apartment house
-
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of apartment
1635–45; < French appartement < Italian appartamento, equivalent to apparta ( re ) to separate, divide (verbal derivative of a parte apart, to one side) + -mento -ment
Explanation
An apartment is a private residence in a building or house that's divided into several separate dwellings. An apartment can be one small room or several. An apartment is a flat — it's usually a few rooms that you rent in a building. Your apartment might be in a fancy high rise with a doorman and an elevator, or over your parents' garage. Since the 1640s, an apartment has meant "separate rooms within a house," from the Italian word appartimento, which literally means "a separated place."
Vocabulary lists containing apartment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tammy Wynette had it; just listen to her mourn how “the sun will never shine in Apartment #9” and your ear will catch the throb in her throat that echoes the song’s steel guitar.
From Salon • May 15, 2026
Lee’s bill passed the state Assembly last year but stalled after fierce opposition from real estate agents and the California Apartment Assn.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026
In January, the national median rent was down 1.4% compared to a year ago, to $1,353, according to a report by Apartment List, a listings website.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 14, 2026
Philipps and Van Der Beek reunited onscreen in 2012 for an episode of the ABC comedy Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, in which Van Der Beek played a fictionalised version of himself.
From BBC • Feb. 12, 2026
Budgie’s owners had been confident that Apartment Search would find me a place.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
