What does condo mean?
A condo — short for condominium — is an individual dwelling unit within a larger building or complex that is owned outright by its occupant, while hallways, grounds, and other shared spaces are held jointly by all the owners. This distinguishes it from a rented apartment, where a landlord holds title to the whole property. Condos are a fixture of North American housing, offering a middle path between renting and owning a detached house: buyers gain equity and a stake in their home without the burden of maintaining exterior structures, which falls to a homeowners' or condo association funded by monthly fees. The word carries a largely neutral, urban connotation, evoking city living, downsizing retirees, and resort properties alike. Derived from Latin roots meaning 'joint dominion', it neatly captures the essence of the arrangement: private ownership coexisting with collective responsibility.
nounAn individual unit in a building or complex that is owned by the person who lives in it, with common areas shared among all owners; short for 'condominium'.
- An individually owned residential unit in a building or complex whose common areas are jointly owned by the unit owners.
- (informally) The building or complex containing such units.
"They bought a condo downtown rather than taking on a full house."
"After years of renting, she finally bought a two-bedroom condo near the waterfront."
"The condo association voted to raise monthly fees to cover roof repairs."
Regular plural; simply add -s. The clipped form takes the ordinary English plural even though the full form 'condominium' has the Latin-style plural 'condominiums' (the Latinate 'condominia' is rare).
"The developer built three new condos along the riverfront."
'Condo' is just Latin shorthand in disguise — it's clipped from 'condominium', meaning 'joint dominion', because you own your walls but share everything around them.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of condo
Condo is a mid-20th-century American clipping of 'condominium', a term borrowed from Latin in which con- ('together') and dominium ('ownership, dominion') combine to mean joint ownership or control. The full word was originally used in international law to describe territory jointly governed by multiple powers before being applied to real estate in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. It shares the Latin root dominium with English words such as dominion, domain, and dominate.
Related word forms
How condo is actually used
Informal but fully standard in everyday speech across North America; the full form 'condominium' appears in legal and formal contexts. The term implies ownership rather than rental, though condos are commonly rented out by their owners.
Easily confused with condo
'Condo' is simply the informal short form of 'condominium', which is the fuller, more formal term for the same thing.
In a co-op you own shares in a corporation that entitles you to occupy a unit, whereas a condo means direct ownership of the unit itself.