apartment
Americannoun
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apartments
plural
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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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
If you host friends at your apartment because no one wants to spend $90 before the Uber ride home, have you somehow opted out of social life altogether?
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
This can be an unwelcome surprise, especially for people moving from an apartment to a house.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
“If the government offers to move us from La Guaira, we won’t go,” said Carmen Gascón, 45, a teacher and mother of three whose apartment was rendered uninhabitable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
"It's an indescribable moment," the 56-year-old lawyer told AFP, planting a kiss on her cat Polux's head after rescuers pulled the animal from the detritus of its owner's apartment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
I mean, it was always an apartment—but now, it’s really an apartment.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Inside empty apartments, benchtops and windows are filmed with dust.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
In Paris in particular this summer, the steep temperatures turned apartments directly under iconic Haussmann-era buildings with zinc-covered roofs into virtual ovens.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
These are fabulous apartments, and some of my friends have spent considerable time and money making them look amazing with renovations and fancy furniture.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Ji and his new wife, expecting a bigger bonus in the coming months, are now eyeing newer apartments with scenic views of Seoul’s Han River.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
“Maybe your family should trade apartments with mine. My parents would probably pay a lot of money for that light.”
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
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.
