apartment

/əˈpɑrtmənt/

/əˈpɑtmənt/

Other forms: apartments

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."

Definitions of apartment

1. noun

   a suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
   synonyms: flat

   types:

   bedsit, bedsitter, bedsitting room

   a furnished sitting room with sleeping accommodations (and some plumbing)

   cold-water flat

   an apartment without modern conveniences

   duplex, duplex apartment

   an apartment having rooms on two floors that are connected by a staircase

   efficiency apartment

   a furnished apartment with a kitchenette and bathroom

   flatlet

   a tiny flat

   maisonette, maisonnette

   a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a larger house and with its own entrance from the outside

   penthouse

   an apartment located on the top floors of a building

   railroad flat

   an apartment whose rooms are all in a line with doors between them

   studio, studio apartment

   an apartment with a living space and a bathroom and a small kitchen

   rooms, suite

   apartment consisting of a series of connected rooms used as a living unit (as in a hotel)

   walk-up, walk-up apartment

   an apartment in a building without an elevator

   type of:

   housing, living accommodations, lodging

   structures collectively in which people are housed