tenement

noun ten·e·ment \ ˈte-nə-mənt \

Definition of tenement

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

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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 of tenement from the Web

He was born in August 1917 as Jacob Kurtzberg, the child of Jewish immigrants from Austria living in the crowded tenements of New York.

— jeet heer, New Republic, "Jack Kirby, the Unknown King," 28 Aug. 2017
Burnham was a leading exponent of the City Beautiful movement, which held that grand, classically inspired architecture and harmonious public spaces would not only replace tenements and slums but morally uplift the masses.

— gary kamiya, San Francisco Chronicle, "SF’s lost opportunity to be reborn as ‘Paris, with hills’," 27 Oct. 2017
Young people danced outside tenement apartments in exchange for gifts, leading into a night of drinking and revelry in the streets and in bars.

— olivia b. waxman, Time, "How Trick-or-Treating Became Part of Halloween Tradition," 26 Oct. 2017
In Nairobi’s slums, where people of dozens of different tribes live side by side in crude tenements and tin shacks, anger could overflow into ethnic violence.

— The Economist, "Kenya’s fresh election is preposterously flawed," 26 Oct. 2017
Later Soviet leaders bequeathed cold, utilitarian public buildings, and the endless vistas of high-rise tenements that stretch to the city limits and house Moscow's teeming millions.

— fred weir, The Christian Science Monitor, "Moscow gets a much needed facelift. But is it worth the cost?," 20 Oct. 2017
Just last week, host Louis C.K. and sketch partner Kate McKinnon couldn’t keep it together while playing immigrant re-enactors at a tenement museum.

— lydia price, PEOPLE.com, "12 Hilarious Times the Saturday Night Live Cast Couldn't Help But Laugh," 2 Oct. 2017
Like any of the greatest old tenements, the new building has more details than can be cataloged

— blake gopnik, New York Times, "Reviving the Joy of Decoration at Nike’s New SoHo Building," 1 Oct. 2017
What if Carmella refused to leave her mountain home for a South Philadelphia tenement? We are honored to visit this beautiful place our great-grandparents were brave enough to leave.

— sally downey, Philly.com, "A trip to Capestrano to honor one's ancestry," 15 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tenement.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.