apartment

[uh-pahrt-muhnt]

noun

1. a room or a group of related rooms, among similar sets in one building, designed for use as a dwelling.

2. a building containing or made up of such rooms.

3. 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.

4. British.,  apartments, a set of rooms used as a dwelling by one person or one family.

apartment

/ əˈpɑːtmənt /

noun

1. (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

2. 1. another name (esp US and Canadian) for flat 2

   2. ( as modifier )

      apartment building

      apartment house

Other Word Forms

• apartmental adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of apartment¹

1635–45; < French appartement < Italian appartamento, equivalent to apparta ( re ) to separate, divide (verbal derivative of a parte apart, to one side) + -mento -ment

Word History and Origins

Origin of apartment¹

C17: from French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from appartare to set on one side, separate

Example Sentences

The lift to her eighth-floor apartment often stops, the lights go out and sometimes the pumps maintaining pressure in the gas central heating fail.

Read more on BBC

A Wall Street Journal investigation traced how a chain of deals across several countries got the chips inside the data center, which is wedged between a private school and an upscale apartment complex.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

After decades with long-term tenants, the brothers calculated that getting the apartments back up to code would cost thousands of dollars that couldn’t be recouped at the artificially low rent cap.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Responding officers requested backup and began searching the large apartment complex — identified as the Broadway Palace Apartments — for any potential victims or suspects.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She fears they will not be able to find another apartment as affordable as the $700 a month they pay.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• co-op 
• condo 
• condominium 
• cooperative 
• flat 
• suite