tenement
tenement Lexical Profile
tenement Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A large building divided into separate apartments or flats for rent, especially one in a densely populated urban area that is dilapidated, overcrowded, and poorly maintained.
"Many nineteenth-century immigrants lived in cramped brick tenements on the Lower East Side."
Scottish A traditional multi-story urban residential building divided into separate flats sharing a common entrance and staircase.
"They bought a spacious top-floor flat in a Victorian sandstone tenement in Edinburgh."
Any piece of land, building, or permanent property held by a person from another under a tenure or lease (in real property law).
"The conveyance transferred title to all lands, tenements, and hereditaments belonging to the estate."
Word Nuance & Usage
In American and English usage, 'tenement' typically carries a negative connotation of an overcrowded, dilapidated urban apartment building, whereas in Scottish usage it neutrally denotes any traditional multi-story stone apartment block regardless of socioeconomic status.
• Rhymes for tenement
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English, from Old French tenement, from Medieval Latin tenementum ('a holding or fief'), derived from Latin tenere ('to hold').