1. a run-down apartment building, especially one that is overcrowded and in poor condition
2. any building divided into separate apartments for rent
Usage: formal; legal
3. property held by a tenant
Usage: legal

Examples

• The old tenement housed dozens of families in cramped conditions.
• Fire safety was a major concern in the crowded tenements of the early 1900s.
• She grew up in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
• The city inspector found numerous violations in the rundown tenement.
• Many immigrants lived in tenements when they first arrived in America.
• The landlord converted the old warehouse into a tenement with small apartments.
• Legal documents described the property as a tenement held under lease.