apartment
Americannoun
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a room or a group of related rooms, among similar sets in one building, designed for use as a dwelling.
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a building containing or made up of such rooms.
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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.
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British. apartments, a set of rooms used as a dwelling by one person or one family.
noun
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(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
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another name (esp US and Canadian) for flat 2
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( as modifier )
apartment building
apartment house
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
"I think everything needs to be demolished," casino worker Eduardo Gutierrez Jr. said after returning to his apartment to retrieve belongings now covered in mud.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
Sunday at an apartment in the 8000 block of Owensmouth Avenue, according to Los Angeles Police Capt. Mike Bland.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
Williams also holds the keys to a two-bedroom apartment in Paris, which she purchased in 2007 during her tennis circuit.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 8, 2026
On Mountbatten-Windsor, Kellen told the committee: "We also went to Andrew's private apartment at Buckingham Palace for dinner. And we were at Princess Beatrice's party at Windsor Castle".
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
Our studio apartment in Brooklyn, with the half fridge and its “Mean People Suck” sticker that was ripped all around the edges, because Mom tried—and failed—to peel it off.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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.
