as in apartments
a room or set of rooms in a private house or a block used as a separate dwelling place
an exhibit of pictures showing the tenements of the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen during the 1920s
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
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.
Recent Examples of tenements
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
The grotty tenements of the Lower East Side — and the distinct fashion within — is as much of a character in A24’s drama as the eponymous ping pong player himself.
—Anna Tingley, Variety, 27 Dec. 2025
The streets, tenements, fire-escapes, the elders, and the urgent concerns of childhood—or, rather, the helpless intensity of anguish with which one watches one’s childhood disappear—are rendered very vividly indeed by Louise Meriwether, in her first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner.
—Literary Hub, 22 Dec. 2025
Also, bamboo scaffolding is ubiquitous in the city, used not only in the construction of new buildings, but also in the renovation of thousands of historic tenements every year.
—Catherine Nicholls, CNN Money, 26 Nov. 2025
Whereas middle- and upper-class homes had bathtubs by the 1890s, most tenements had none.
—Jacob Beckert, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2025
Teachers gravitated to a book in one of our exhibits, Sermons and Addresses by Abraham Lincoln, that originally belonged to Parthenia Lawrence, a Black teenager who lived in the tenements during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
—Annie Polland, Time, 25 Sep. 2025
Her novels always burst with a rich historical vibrancy, but The Gilded Heiress in particular brings to life the streets and tenements of the Gilded Age, as well as the burgeoning success of Broadway as industry.
—EW.com, 28 Aug. 2025
As the deteriorating tenements emptied, the arson began.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 2 Jan. 2026
The grotty tenements of the Lower East Side — and the distinct fashion within — is as much of a character in A24’s drama as the eponymous ping pong player himself.
—Anna Tingley, Variety, 27 Dec. 2025
The streets, tenements, fire-escapes, the elders, and the urgent concerns of childhood—or, rather, the helpless intensity of anguish with which one watches one’s childhood disappear—are rendered very vividly indeed by Louise Meriwether, in her first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner.
—Literary Hub, 22 Dec. 2025
Also, bamboo scaffolding is ubiquitous in the city, used not only in the construction of new buildings, but also in the renovation of thousands of historic tenements every year.
—Catherine Nicholls, CNN Money, 26 Nov. 2025
Whereas middle- and upper-class homes had bathtubs by the 1890s, most tenements had none.
—Jacob Beckert, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2025
Teachers gravitated to a book in one of our exhibits, Sermons and Addresses by Abraham Lincoln, that originally belonged to Parthenia Lawrence, a Black teenager who lived in the tenements during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
—Annie Polland, Time, 25 Sep. 2025
Her novels always burst with a rich historical vibrancy, but The Gilded Heiress in particular brings to life the streets and tenements of the Gilded Age, as well as the burgeoning success of Broadway as industry.
—EW.com, 28 Aug. 2025
As the deteriorating tenements emptied, the arson began.
—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tenements
Noun
-
City officials voted in 2022 to replace the mall with a housing, apartments, restaurants, hotels and more, but there was no timetable for when that project would be completed.—
Lesley Marin,
CBS News,
13 Jan. 2026
-
Flamingo Village offers apartments and townhomes for rent.—
Sarah Moreno,
Miami Herald,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
There are three-bedrooms, including penthouses, which start around $5,800 a month.—
Phillip Molnar,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Dec. 2025
-
At Villa Valencia, the three penthouses — including an entire top-floor unit marketed at a price of $15 million — were either unsold, unfinished or both, preventing Kapoor from paying out antsy investors.—
Sarah Blaskey,
Miami Herald,
16 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tenements.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tenements. Accessed 17 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
