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Glite Dictionary
tenement district

tenement district

7.7
An area in a city with many small, crowded apartments where people live in poor conditions
  • noun
  • /ˈtɛnəmənt ˈdɪstrɪkt/
translation icon : barrio de inquilinato
  • The photographer captured the daily life struggles of residents in the tenement district, highlighting the poor living conditions.

Examples

  • She often volunteered at a community center in the tenement district to help families in need.

  • What's the idea of bringing people up here from the tenement district?

    Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

  • Growing up in the tenement district taught him the value of community despite the overcrowded conditions.

Synonyms

ghetto
vstenement district
80 5.6

A poor crowded part of a city where a minority group lives

describes poor urban zones defined by old crowded apartment housing not by group identity
slum
vstenement district
77 3.0

A poor part of a city with crowded, run-down houses and few services

focuses on mainly old crowded apartment housing rather than general poverty
slum area
vstenement district
2 2.7

A poor part of a city where many people live in small, crowded houses

is specifically residential with mainly old crowded apartment buildings rather than any poor buildings

Antonyms

suburb
286 2.7

An area just outside a city with many houses where people live

How Run-down

slum
77 3.0
tenement district
7.7
neighborhood
  • US
∞ 1.8

Surface Forms

tenement district singular
tenement districts plural

Morphology

tenement + district

The meaning 'an area characterized by tenement buildings' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'tenement' (low-cost apartment building) with 'district' (an area). This straightforward noun+noun composition follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Tenement district names city areas full of cheap tenement houses where many families lived in small rooms, and district simply means a part of the city. Picture rows of narrow buildings with many windows and clothes hanging outside; that image explains why tenement district means an 'area of crowded, poor housing'.