apartment definition

English

Alternative forms

• APT (The US Postal Service prefers this variant)
• apt.

Etymology

From French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from Spanish apartamiento (“separation, seclusion”). See apart.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑːt.mənt/
• (General American) enPR: ə-pärt'mənt, IPA^(key): /əˈpɑɹt.mənt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

apartment (plural apartments)

1. (chiefly Canada, US) A complete domicile occupying only part of a building, especially one for rent; a flat.

   apartment dwellers

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     I am Jonathan. I am in apartment B4. — I am in apartment C2.

     Audio (US)

     (file)

2. (archaic) A suite of rooms within a domicile, designated for a specific person or persons and including a bedroom.
   • 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 995220039, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     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.

3. (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....

4. (computing, COM) 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

• (domicile occupying part of a building): flat (UK); unit; (compare with) condominium

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: アパートメント (apātomento)
• → Thai: อพาร์ทเมนท์ (à-páat-mén)

Translations

See also

• tenement