apartment

American  

[uh-pahrt-muhnt] / əˈpɑrt mənt /

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.

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apartment British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

• apartmental adjective

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

Example Sentences

Ernest Hemingway’s memoir, “A Moveable Feast,” opens with him as a young man in 1920s Paris worrying about the cost of heating his apartment.

From The Wall Street Journal

A man, 55, living in an apartment there, said the strike was "so sudden" and he was "thrown across the room".

From BBC

In Napa Valley, the French Laundry and others say a planned apartment complex isn’t a good fit.

From The Wall Street Journal

As Alpha waits for the results of blood tests, she is startled by the sudden appearance of a gaunt, jittery stranger in their apartment.

From Los Angeles Times

Beetz stars as Asia, a young woman who turns up on the stoop of a high-end Manhattan apartment building, the Virgil, answering an ad for a maid job.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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