tenement

[ten-uh-muhnt]

noun

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.

tenement

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• tenemental adjective
• tenementary adjective
• tenemented adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tenement¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of tenement¹

C14: from Medieval Latin tenementum, from Latin tenēre to hold

Example Sentences

Scenes switch effortlessly from Prague, with its shadowy bridge looming over the Moldau, to a Brooklyn tenement, a busy office, a tony art gallery, and the roof of the Empire State Building.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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.

Read more on Salon

Roads have been cordoned off and homes evacuated after a derelict tenement building collapsed in Glasgow.

Read more on BBC

A chihuahua has been rescued from a building destroyed by fire in Perth after surviving for nearly two weeks in the tenement.

Read more on BBC

It is the second major fire to hit a building in the city in the space of a week after a tenement on the corner of South Street and Scott Street was destroyed last Saturday.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• rookery 
• slum