Word Confusion: Apartment vs Condo vs Flat vs Townhouse

Posted August 15, 2024 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

This word confusion apartment vs condo vs flat vs townhouse has always been in the back of my mind — along with all the other dust-covered thoughts . . . oh well . . .

I knew an apartment and a flat were the same thing, a unit that’s rented to someone, and that a condo is just like an apartment but owned by its tenant, but . . .

If you want to get “technical”, an apartment is a set of rooms that a person rents; it can span more than one floor.

A condo, a.k.a. comdominium, is a set of rooms that a person owns, and it can span more than one floor.

A flat is a British term for apartment, but “technically” can only span one floor.

A townhouse is a set of rooms with multiple floors and shares its sidewalls with a building on either side. No side yard. It usually has a backyard.

And yes, a person can rent a condo or townhouse from its owner, and a townhouse may be split into apartments on its various floors.

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Exploring Later . . .

You may want to explore co-op in “Co-op vs Coop vs Coup vs Coupe, Coupé“.

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Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Apartment Condo Flat Townhouse

A really old 5-story apartment building in black-and-white.
Oldest Apartment House in New York City, 142 East 18th Street, Manhattan, 1936, by Berenice Abbott is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license, via Picryl, sponsored by the Federal Art Project (New York, N.Y.), and courtesy of the Collection of NYC.

An apartment, a condo, and a flat can all be in a similar-looking building.

An early spring day looking down the sidewalk at a row of townhouses.
Brownstones on West 79th Street is under the CC0 1.0 license, via Raw Pixel.

When an author refers to “brownstones” in a novel, it generally means a townhouse.
Part of Grammar:
Noun

Plural: apartments

Morpheme: condominium


Noun

Plural: condos, condominiums

NOTE: This post only notes the definition for a place in which one lives.

Noun

Plural: flats

Noun

Plural: townhouses

A.k.a. town house, town houses

[North American English] A suite of rooms that could be over one floor, forming one residence, typically in a building containing a number of these

  • [North American English] A large building containing residential suites
  • [British English] An apartment that is well appointed or used for vacations
  • [apartments] A suite of rooms in a very large or grand house set aside for the private use of a monarch or noble
[North American English] A building or complex of buildings containing a number of individually owned apartments or houses

  • A unit in such a complex
  • The system of ownership by which condominiums operate, in which owners have full title to the individual apartment or house and an undivided interest in the shared parts of the property
[British] A set of rooms that forms a residence within one floor A tall, narrow, traditional row house, generally having three or more floors

  • [US and Canadian, chiefly British; row home, row house, terraced house] A multi-story house which is attached to one or more similar houses by shared walls
  • A house in a town or city belonging to someone who has another property in the country
  • A terraced house in an urban area, especially a fashionable one, often having the main living room on the second floor with an integral garage on the first floor

[Government, Politics, Diplomacy; now chiefly Scottish] Another name for town hall

Examples:
I just moved into my new apartment.

Have you seen that new apartment building?

We rented an apartment by the beach for a week.

See that the Imperial apartments are prepared.

Those condos have been there for ages.

He bought a condo in that complex over on Third Avenue.

The condo board is meeting tonight.

The condo owners have been assessed $1,000 for snow removal this winter.

She’s moving into her flat this weekend.

That building has more than 500 flats.

We’re going to Marina’s flat in the City for dinner.

When I’m in the city, I prefer a flat over a townhouse.

No, we can’t live in a townhouse. Not with all those flights of stairs.

As the Industrial Revolution progressed, townhouses became a more practical form of architecture.

We have the townhouse in New York and a country home in Vermont.

“It was filmed in the real $50,000-a-month Tribeca townhouse that Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, rented back in 2011” (McNicoll).

“When Kana′tĭ reached the settlement of the Wolf people, they were holding a council in the townhouse” (Mooney).

Derivatives:
Adjective: apartmental
History of the Word:
Mid-17th century, denoting a private suite of rooms is from the French appartement, from the Italian appartamento, from appartare meaning to separate, from a parte meaning apart. Dates from the 1960s and evolved from the early 18th century from the modern Latin, from con- (together with) + dominium (right of ownership), which is from the Middle English via the Old French from the medieval Latin dominio(n-), which is from the Latin dominium, from dominus meaning lord, master. Derived from the Scottish flet, which implies a storey of a house, and from the Old English flett, meaning dwelling, hall. First recorded in 1520–30.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Marketing Help & Resources, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Building Your Website.

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Resources for Apartment vs Condo vs Flat vs Townhouse

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: townhouse

The Free Dictionary: townhouse

Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee: Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Project Gutenberg, 2014. <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm>. Ebook.

McNicoll, Tracy. “We Watch the DSK Sex Romp So You Don’t Have To.” The Daily Beast. 20 May 2014. Last updated 12 July 2017. Accessed 6 Aug 2024. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-watch-the-dsk-sex-romp-so-you-dont-have-to?source=dictionary>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Building Façade is in the public domain, via PxHere.

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