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Apartment vs Tenement - What's the difference?

apartment | tenement |

As nouns the difference between apartment and tenement

is that apartment is a complete domicile occupying only part of a building while tenement is a building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one.

apartment

English

(wikipedia apartment)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A complete domicile occupying only part of a building.
    • apartment dwellers
  • (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.
  • (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....

    Synonyms

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

    Derived terms

    * apartment building

    See also

    * tenement

    tenement

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one
  • (legal) any form of property that is held by one person from another, rather than being owned
  • (figurative) Dwelling; abode; habitation.
  • * John Locke
    • Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement , unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?

    Synonyms

    * (building) tenement house, apartment building

    Derived terms

    * servient tenement

    See also

    (Wikipedia) * rooming house

    References

    * ----