Apartment

French appartement; compare with Italian appartamento, from appartare ("to separate, set apart"); all from Latin ad + pars 'part'. See apart.

Full definition of apartment

(plural apartments)

A complete domicile occupying only part of a building.apartment dwellers
(archaic) A suite of rooms within a domicile, designated for a specific person or persons and including a bedroom.

Swift Gulliver|I|IVBy this contrivance I got into the inmost court; and, lying down upon my side, I applied my face to the windows of the middle stories, which were left open on purpose, and discovered the most splendid apartments that can be imagined. There I saw the empress and the young princes in their several lodgings, with their chief attendants about them.

(obsolete) A division of an enclosure that is separate from others; a compartment

1883 April 23, Slawson v. Grand Street R. Co., 107 U.S. 649, 2 S.Ct. 663, 664,The specification described the ordinary fare-box used in street cars and omnibuses, consisting of two apartments, the one directly above the other.... The passenger deposited his fare in an aperture in the top of the upper apartment. It fell upon and was arrested by a movable platform.... This platform turned on an axis acted on by a lever. When turned, the fare fell into the lower apartment, which was a receptacle for holding the fares accumulated....

(domicile occupying part of a building) flat UK; unit; compare with condominium