apartment
nounUK /əˈpɑːt.mənt/ · US /əˈpɑɹt.mənt/
Etymology From French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from Spanish apartamiento (“separation, seclusion”). See apart and -ment.
1
Australia, Canada, Philippines, US A complete domicile occupying only part of a building, especially one for rent; a flat.
- apartment dwellers
- I am Jonathan. I am in apartment B4. — I am in apartment C2.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
2
Archaic A suite of rooms within a domicile, designated for a specific person or persons and including a bedroom.
- By this contrivance I got into the inmost court; and, lying down upon my side, I applied my face to the windows of the middle stories, which were left open on purpose, and discovered the most splendid apartments that can be imagined. There I saw the empress and the young princes in their several lodgings, with their chief attendants about them.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Mildendo, the Metropolis of Lilliput, Described, together with the Emperor’s Palace. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 69:
3
A room within a house.
- For the matter of that, it is difficult to make a nice, genteel sitting-room out of an apartment of which the principal features are a sink and a big gas stove.1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger:
4
Obsolete A division of an enclosure that is separate from others; a compartment.
- 1883 April 23, Slawson v. Grand Street R. Co., 107 U.S. 649, 2 S.Ct. 663, 664, The specification described the ordinary fare-box used in street cars and omnibuses, consisting of two apartments, the one directly above the other.... [T]he passenger deposited his fare in an aperture in the top of the upper apartment. It fell upon and was arrested by a movable platform.... This platform turned on an axis acted on by a lever. When turned, the fare fell into the lower apartment, which was a receptacle for holding the fares accumulated....
5
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A conceptual space used for separation in the threading architecture. Objects in one apartment cannot directly access those in another, but must use a proxy.
- Synonyms
- flat, unit, condominium
- Derived terms
28 terms
apartelle, aparthotel, apartmental, apartment block, apartment building, apartment complex, apartment hotel, apartment house, apartmentless, apartmentlike, apartmentmate, apartment sit, apartment-sit, apartments to let, apartment tower, apartotel, bachelor apartment, basement apartment, efficiency apartment, garage apartment, garden apartment, hotel-apartment, microapartment, mother-in-law apartment, multiapartment, nanoapartment, studio apartment, sub-apartment- Related terms
- tenement