apartment
[uh-pahrt-muh nt]
- 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.
- apartments, British. a set of rooms used as a dwelling by one person or one family.
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Origin of apartment
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
flatresidencecavesuiteaccommodationpenthousecondocoopcooperativedumppaddenlodgingrentalwalk-updigscold-waterExamples from the Web for apartment
Contemporary Examples
He was born in an apartment above the grocery store owned by his immigrant parents in South Jamaica, Queens.
“Bodegas, private residences, apartment buildings, you name it,” the investigator says.
At 24, I slipped on the ice outside of my Michigan apartment.
Magazines are the only thing in my apartment that qualify as clutter.
And there are a few nice things buried beneath the rubble that I could use in my apartment.
Historical Examples
As I approached her apartment, the voice of Alcibiades met my ear.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
Philothea has glided from the apartment, as if afraid to remain in my presence.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
What is the use of a beautiful face, if one must be shut up in her own apartment for ever?
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
At parting, she urged Eudora to share her apartment for the night.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
How restful this quiet and reserve after the colour and line tumult of the Higbee apartment.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
apartment
- (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 (def. 1)
- (as modifier)apartment building; apartment house
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Word Origin
C17: from French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from appartare to set on one side, separate
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for apartment
n.
1640s, "private rooms for the use of one person within a house," from French appartement (16c.), from Italian appartimento, literally "a separated place," from appartere "to separate," from a "to" (see ad-) + parte "side, place," from Latin partem (see part (n.)). Sense of "set of private rooms in a building entirely of these" (the U.S. equivalent of British flat) is first attested 1874.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper