efficiency apartment

American  

noun

1. a small apartment consisting typically of a combined living room and bedroom area, a bathroom, and a kitchenette.

---

efficiency apartment British  

noun

1. a small flat or bedsit

---

Etymology

Origin of efficiency apartment

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

In Suzan-Lori Parks’s “Topdog/Underdog,” a revival of which is at the Golden Theater through Sunday, the brothers Lincoln and Booth share Booth’s tiny efficiency apartment.

From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2023

Arletis Relova, a 29-year-old former schoolteacher, is living with her cousin in an efficiency apartment in Miami.

From Washington Post • Jul. 11, 2022

Smilen fed street cats nightly and began hoarding them inside the small efficiency apartment.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 20, 2021

The best way to understand what an efficiency apartment is would be to explain the primary differences between an efficiency apartment and a studio apartment.

From Encyclopedia.com • Mar. 21, 2018

If I lived frugally, I would have enough to move out of the stacks and rent a small efficiency apartment somewhere.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline