noun
tenement
TEN-uh-munt/ˈtenəmənt/
An apartment building, especially a crowded, run-down one.
Families share a narrow stairway in the aging brick tenement.
Etymology
The underlying idea is property that someone holds. The word narrowed from a property holding to a dwelling, then to housing divided among several families, especially in poorer city districts.
In context
climbed five-story tenement fire escapes. What those visiting nurses witnessed inside the immigrant tenements of New York was a nightmare worthy of Dante. In cramped, airless rooms where six or eight family members shared a single bed
More examples
- The landlord finally repairs the tenement's leaking roof.
- Rows of crowded tenements line the city's oldest streets.
- She grew up in a tenement with six apartments.
Forms
tenement · tenements
Similar words
- apartment building
- A neutral term that does not suggest crowding or disrepair.
- walk-up
- Specifically lacks an elevator; need not be crowded or run-down.