# apartment

/əˈpɑɹtmənt/ (US) · /ɐpˈɑːtmənt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/apartment
Updated: 2026-05-01

## Senses

### 1. a home

noun · CEFR A1 · American English

a set of rooms where you live that is part of a larger building.

For teachers: a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Standard in American English; 'flat' is the preferred term in British English.

- They moved into a modern apartment on the fourth floor of the building.
- The developer converted the historic warehouse into luxury apartments, retaining the original brickwork and high ceilings to attract young professionals.

Usage: Usually countable; often used with 'in' or 'at'.

### 2. computing/threading

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a private space in a computer program that keeps different tasks separate so they do not crash.

For teachers: a logical container within a process for objects sharing the same thread access requirements. Used to manage concurrency and prevent data corruption.

- The program uses a single-threaded apartment to handle the user interface.
- When developing COM components, the programmer must decide whether the object will reside in a single-threaded or multi-threaded apartment to ensure thread safety.

Usage: Commonly used in the context of Component Object Model (COM) programming.

## Examples

- She lives in a small apartment on the third floor.
- The young couple decided to rent a modern apartment close to the city center to save time on their daily commute.
- While the historic building retains its original exterior, the interior has been divided into several luxury apartments featuring open-plan layouts and high ceilings.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.