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

The weight of the rescue was not lost on a group gathered at a Lower East Side tenement late last month, when Rachelle Muraca, Cathy Guiga-Tubens and Carmine Guiga met Charles Williams for the very first time in New York City. —Greta Bjornson, PEOPLE, 3 Feb. 2026

Fisk developed a modular system of constructing old tenement fronts to place at the face of buildings that’ve been modernized and power-washed over decades. —David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 7 Jan. 2026

There’s a row of five-story buildings off Fifth Avenue in Park Slope that seem to fit the neighborhood standard for prewar, working-class tenements — a central staircase divvying up ten dark railroad apartments. —Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Jan. 2026

From dingy midtown basements and old tenement buildings in New York, to Wembley Stadium, on tour with the Harlem Globetrotters, and all the way to Japan and back, table tennis takes Marty around the world. —Alexandra Jhamb Burns, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 Jan. 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