Tenement
noun
A large building divided into apartments, especially in a poor area of a city.
He grew up in a tenement in the lower part of the city.
Often appears as...
- tenement building
- tenement house
noun
A piece of land held by an owner.
The land tenement is leased to a mining company for extraction purposes.
Often appears as...
- land tenement
- mining tenement
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
noun
A large building divided into apartments, especially in a poor area of a city.
He grew up in a tenement in the lower part of the city.
Often appears as...
- tenement building
- tenement house
noun
A piece of land held by an owner.
The land tenement is leased to a mining company for extraction purposes.
Often appears as...
- land tenement
- mining tenement
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Urban Poverty
Tenement often implies overcrowding and poor living conditions in urban areas.
Immigrant families sometimes had no choice but to stay in cramped tenements.
Pro Tip 2/3Historical Context
The term is more common in historical or older texts, referring to early 20th-century urban housing.
Historical novels set in New York City often describe the harsh life in tenements.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Poor
While tenements are associated with poverty, they may also just mean rented apartments.
The tenement we visited was surprisingly well-kept and spacious.
Pro Tip 1/3Urban Poverty
Tenement often implies overcrowding and poor living conditions in urban areas.
Immigrant families sometimes had no choice but to stay in cramped tenements.
Pro Tip 2/3Historical Context
The term is more common in historical or older texts, referring to early 20th-century urban housing.
Historical novels set in New York City often describe the harsh life in tenements.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Poor
While tenements are associated with poverty, they may also just mean rented apartments.
The tenement we visited was surprisingly well-kept and spacious.
Pro Tip 1/3Urban Poverty
Tenement often implies overcrowding and poor living conditions in urban areas.
Immigrant families sometimes had no choice but to stay in cramped tenements.
Pro Tip 2/3Historical Context
The term is more common in historical or older texts, referring to early 20th-century urban housing.
Historical novels set in New York City often describe the harsh life in tenements.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Poor
While tenements are associated with poverty, they may also just mean rented apartments.
The tenement we visited was surprisingly well-kept and spacious.
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Video examples
Colin Powell: Kids need...
but there were these tenement buildings, and these women were always hanging out one of the windows, leaning on a pillow. They never left. I, so help me God, I grew up walking those streets, and they were always there. They never went to the bathroom. They never cooked. They never did anything.
Video examples
Kids need structure -...
case it was aunts who lived in all of these tenement buildings I don't know how many of you New Yorkers but there were these tenement buildings and these women were always hanging out one of the windows leaning on a pillow they never left I so help me God I grew up walking
Video examples
When Cities Were...
or tenements they were small and rarely had windows so there was no light or ventilation houses are overcrowded they're working in factories that breathing on one another that contaminating one another with their
Video examples
Colin Powell: Kids need...
but there were these tenement buildings, and these women were always hanging out one of the windows, leaning on a pillow. They never left. I, so help me God, I grew up walking those streets, and they were always there. They never went to the bathroom. They never cooked. They never did anything.
Video examples
Kids need structure -...
case it was aunts who lived in all of these tenement buildings I don't know how many of you New Yorkers but there were these tenement buildings and these women were always hanging out one of the windows leaning on a pillow they never left I so help me God I grew up walking
Video examples
When Cities Were...
or tenements they were small and rarely had windows so there was no light or ventilation houses are overcrowded they're working in factories that breathing on one another that contaminating one another with their
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Kris Kristofferson
American Musician
Sunday Morning Coming Down' is probably the most directly autobiographical thing I'd written. In those days, I was living in a slum tenement that was torn down afterwards, but it was $25 a month in a condemned building, and 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' was more or less looking around me and writing about what I was doing.
Quote examples
Rza
American Musician
Growing up in New York, there are a lot of tenement buildings and a lot of projects. You don't leave your projects too much. The laundry's there. The grocery store is there. Everything takes place right there. When I got knowledge of myself and thought about moving around the city, hip-hop was something that helped me.
Quote examples
Deval Patrick
American Politician
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.
Quote examples
Martin Scorsese
American Director
I was saying as a joke the other day that I love film editing, I know how to cut a picture, I think I know how to shoot it, but I don't know how to light it. And I realize it's because I didn't grow up with light. I grew up in tenements.
Quote examples
Claude McKay
Jamaican Writer
Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines, Linking each flat, but to each indifferent, Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.
Quote examples
Bonnie Bedelia
American Actress
I grew up in a slum neighborhood - rows of tenements, with stoops, and kids all over the street. It was a real neighborhood - we played kick-the-can and ring-a-levio.
Quote examples
Peter Capaldi
Scottish Actor
It was great being brought up in a Glasgow working-class tenement. It wasn't miserable, and it wasn't poverty stricken. It felt very safe, full of delights.
Quote examples
Paul Simon
American Musician
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.
Quote examples
Bob Menendez
American Politician
I was raised poor, in a tenement building in Union City, New Jersey, the son of Cuban immigrants.
Quote examples
Cy Coleman
American Composer
When I was four years old, my mother owned some tenements in the Bronx.
Quote examples
Kris Kristofferson
American Musician
Sunday Morning Coming Down' is probably the most directly autobiographical thing I'd written. In those days, I was living in a slum tenement that was torn down afterwards, but it was $25 a month in a condemned building, and 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' was more or less looking around me and writing about what I was doing.
Quote examples
Rza
American Musician
Growing up in New York, there are a lot of tenement buildings and a lot of projects. You don't leave your projects too much. The laundry's there. The grocery store is there. Everything takes place right there. When I got knowledge of myself and thought about moving around the city, hip-hop was something that helped me.
Quote examples
Deval Patrick
American Politician
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.
Quote examples
Martin Scorsese
American Director
I was saying as a joke the other day that I love film editing, I know how to cut a picture, I think I know how to shoot it, but I don't know how to light it. And I realize it's because I didn't grow up with light. I grew up in tenements.
Quote examples
Claude McKay
Jamaican Writer
Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines, Linking each flat, but to each indifferent, Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.
Quote examples
Bonnie Bedelia
American Actress
I grew up in a slum neighborhood - rows of tenements, with stoops, and kids all over the street. It was a real neighborhood - we played kick-the-can and ring-a-levio.
Quote examples
Peter Capaldi
Scottish Actor
It was great being brought up in a Glasgow working-class tenement. It wasn't miserable, and it wasn't poverty stricken. It felt very safe, full of delights.
Quote examples
Paul Simon
American Musician
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.
Quote examples
Bob Menendez
American Politician
I was raised poor, in a tenement building in Union City, New Jersey, the son of Cuban immigrants.
Quote examples
Cy Coleman
American Composer
When I was four years old, my mother owned some tenements in the Bronx.
Example 1 of 10
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