tenement

American  

[ten-uh-muhnt] / ˈtɛn ə mənt /

noun

tenements plural

1. Also called tenement house.  a run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city.

2. Law.

   1. any species of permanent property, as lands, houses, rents, an office, or a franchise, that may be held of another.

   2. tenements, freehold interests in things immovable considered as subjects of property.

3. British. an apartment or room rented by a tenant.

4. Archaic. any abode or habitation.

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tenement British  

/ ˈtɛnəmənt, ˌtɛnəˈmɛntəl /

noun

1. Also called: tenement building.  (now esp in Scotland) a large building divided into separate flats

2. a dwelling place or residence, esp one intended for rent

3. a room or flat for rent

4. property law any form of permanent property, such as land, dwellings, offices, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tenemental
  adjective
• tenementary
  adjective
• tenemented
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tenements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tenement

1250–1300; Middle English < Medieval Latin tenēmentum, equivalent to Latin tenē ( re ) to hold + -mentum -ment

Explanation

A tenement is a run-down apartment building. The tenements in Old New York were barely safe enough to live in — fire hazards, no air circulation, and no bathrooms, either. When different immigrant groups first came to the United States in the 1800s, they didn't have much money and would often end up living in close quarters with many people in a small apartment, or tenement. These buildings were notorious for catching fire and collapsing. In 1901, New York City passed a law that said all tenement apartments had to have running water — ah, indoor plumbing! — and required that each room have a window.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tenement tenements

He published his Yiddish-infused epic of tenement life at the age of 28.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

In the densely populated Centro Habana district, a storm brought down the stone staircase, leading from the ground to the upper floors, in the neo-classical pink 1920s tenement where Marnie Estevez lives.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

The boys’ father started his life in a Lower East Side tenement before apprenticing as a lawyer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

Colonial authorities, meanwhile, transform the Worli chawls - tenement housing for cotton mill workers - into makeshift prisons for detained nationalists.

From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025

The narrow street was lined with four- and five-story brick tenement buildings, many of them in the process of being torn down and replaced.

From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin

Her crusade reflected her earlier shock upon seeing Lower East Side tenements for the first time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

In major cities, middle-class reformers opened settlement houses for poor immigrants, enacted housing codes to ban cold-water tenements and set up free public schools.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2025

Projections of tenements give David Zinn’s fleet scenic design that old-timey Big Apple flavor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2024

It’s one of the world’s largest and densest slum clusters where families of six often live in 100-square tenements and 80 people may share a toilet.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2024

Bodega had had a beautiful row of five newly renovated tenements and now the middle one looked like a missing tooth in a pretty woman’s smile.

From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez

Related Words

• rookery
• slum