apartment

noun

apart·​ment ə-ˈpärt-mənt How to pronounce apartment (audio)
plural apartments
1
: a room or set of rooms fitted especially with housekeeping facilities and usually leased as a dwelling
2
: a building containing several individual apartments
3
British : a large and impressive room or set of rooms
usually plural
Assured that the Queen and Prince Philip had retired to bed, Mr Hillyard tried to pass through the Royal apartments as the train left Aberdeen on its journey to London.Jonathan Petre
apartmental adjective

Examples of apartment in a Sentence

We lived in an apartment for several years before buying a house. a spacious six-room apartment that occupies the entire upper floor of a two-family house
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Residents of the apartment complex described 40 to 60 gunshots during the exchange of gunfire. Arkansas Online, 10 Sep. 2025 In one incident, his attorney said, Egyptian forces with machine guns stormed into an apartment where Soliman was asleep with his wife and young child. Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 10 Sep. 2025 Zarutska worked in a lively area of the lower South End dotted with breweries, apartment complexes and coffee shops. Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2025 Now supposedly dying from some terminal illness, Julian has gone total hermit mode inside of his cluttered London apartment, where the walls are festooned with the relics of his success and the backrooms are a junk pile of painful memories. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 9 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for apartment

Word History

Etymology

French appartement, from Italian appartamento

First Known Use

circa 1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of apartment was circa 1645

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Cite this Entry

“Apartment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apartment. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

Kids Definition

apartment

noun
apart·​ment ə-ˈpärt-mənt How to pronounce apartment (audio)
1
: a room or set of rooms used as a dwelling
2

More from Merriam-Webster on apartment

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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