tenement

noun

ten·​e·​ment ˈte-nə-mənt 

1

a

: tenement house

b

: apartment, flat

c

: a house used as a dwelling : residence

2

: any of various forms of corporeal property (such as land) or incorporeal property that is held by one person from another

3

: dwelling

Synonyms of tenement

• apartment
• penthouse

Examples of tenement in a Sentence

an exhibit of pictures showing the tenements of the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen during the 1920s

Recent Examples on the Web

What if the education system taught kids how to cook good food and grow a garden, even on the balcony of a tenement apartment? —Aaron Everitt, STAT, 10 Apr. 2026

Lopes needed an adult role model and one came along in the coach at an opposing high school, Mike Sarkesian, who grew up in a Providence tenement but became the basketball coach and athletic director at Iowa Wesleyan College the year Lopes graduated from high school. —Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026

German Jews—my people—were far less numerous, most of them came to the United States earlier, and their typical first occupation was peddling, which entailed wandering through non-Jewish areas, not living in tenements. —Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026

My earliest memories are from the South Bronx, where my family lived in a tenement building on Leggett Avenue. —CBS News, 27 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, "the holding of property, the property so held, building, dwelling," borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Medieval Latin tenementum, tenimentum, teneamentum, from Latin tenēre "to hold, occupy, possess" + -mentum -ment — more at tenant entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing tenement

• tenement house

Rhymes for tenement

• presentiment

Kids Definition

tenement

noun

ten·​e·​ment ˈten-ə-mənt 

1

a

: a house used as a dwelling

b

: apartment sense 1, flat

c

: tenement house

2

: dwelling

Legal Definition

tenement

noun

ten·​e·​ment ˈte-nə-mənt 

1

a

: any of various forms of property (as land) that is held by one person from another

b

: an estate in property

2

: dwelling

Etymology

Anglo-French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin tenementum, from Latin tenēre to hold