penthouse
Americannoun
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penthouses
plural
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an apartment or dwelling on the roof of a building, usually set back from the outer walls.
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any specially designed apartment on an upper floor, especially the top floor, of a building.
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a structure on a roof for housing elevator machinery, a water tank, etc.
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Also called pentice. Also called pent. a shed with a sloping roof, or a sloping roof, projecting from a wall or the side of a building, as to shelter a door.
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any rooflike shelter or overhanging part.
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Court Tennis. a corridor having a slanted roof and projecting from three walls of the court.
noun
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a flat or maisonette built onto the top floor or roof of a block of flats
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a construction on the roof of a building, esp one used to house machinery
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a shed built against a building, esp one that has a sloping roof
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real tennis the roofed corridor that runs along three sides of the court
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of penthouse
First recorded in 1520–30; alteration (by folk etymology) of Middle English pentis, from Old French apentiz, equivalent to apent, past participle of apendre “to hang against” + -iz ( French -is ), from unattested Vulgar Latin -ātīcium, noun use of neuter of unattested -ātīcius, equivalent to Latin -āt(us) past participle suffix + -īcius adjective suffix; see appendant, -ate 1
Explanation
A penthouse is fancy apartment on the very highest floor of a tall building. The penthouse can be a status symbol. Just ask the characters from The Jeffersons — they moved on up to a “deluxe apartment in the sky.” While you can use the word penthouse for any top floor apartment, it usually implies something luxurious. A penthouse is often the fanciest and most expensive apartment in the building. Sometimes a penthouse even has its own private elevator. The first penthouses appeared in the 1920s, some taking up entire top floors, though the word has been in use much longer. Originally, it meant "simple structure," from the Old French apentis, "attached building."
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.
See Examples For:
They met at his penthouse in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, at a private back room in a bar in North Beach and at the W Hotel in Los Angeles, she writes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
As his star rose, he attracted amused attention with his Manhattan penthouse and Palm Beach compound, both outfitted to the gills in golden decor.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
Under the deal, HRP planned to remove the fuel depot and, starting in 2027, build two luxury condo towers with penthouse units priced as high as $100 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
Mamdani filmed a video in April outside Griffin's New York penthouse to promote a new tax on luxury properties in the city.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
The four of us had been given what was in effect the prison’s penthouse: a spacious room on the third and topmost floor of the prison.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
It now offers 53 loft-style homes and eight penthouses.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026
The most expensive penthouses in the Bugatti Residences By Binghatti building will include large, private lifts for the owner's cars, so they can park them inside their apartments.
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2026
“So you have venture investors talking about AI and then $50 million penthouses all in the same episode. We’ll see if people like it. I don’t know.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Attas has seen it all, from opulent penthouses to homes she describes in her new memoir, “Pets and the City,” as “so squalid I feared for my life just breathing in the air.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
In the farmyards the men go about their work clad in sacks, and if they may will shelter under penthouses and find work to do in the barns.
From Far Off Things by Arthur Machen
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.
