Meaning & use
low-rise building
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A building with only a few floors, so it is much shorter than a tower block or skyscraper.
Grammar: Countable: a low-rise building, many low-rise buildings. 'Low-rise' alone can also be a noun or adjective.
Patterns
- a low-rise building in something
Most of the neighborhood consists of low-rise buildings with shops on the ground floor.
The architect designed a low-rise building to protect the view of the hills.
Our apartment is in a quiet low-rise building with a small garden.
Word forms
| plural | low-rise buildings |
|---|
Common combinations
- a row of low-rise buildings
- A row of low-rise buildings lined the main street.
- modern low-rise building
- The clinic occupies a modern low-rise building.
- demolish a low-rise building
- The council plans to demolish the old low-rise building.
- low-rise building code
- The low-rise building code limits height to four stories.
Synonyms and how they differ
- walk-up
- A walk-up is a low apartment block without an elevator, which is a narrower idea than low-rise.
- bungalow
- A bungalow is a single-story house, much smaller than a low-rise building.
- midrise
- A midrise is taller than a low-rise, usually five to twelve floors.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: low-rise building or low-rise trousers?
low-rise building vs low-rise trousers
Low-rise can also describe trousers that sit low on the hips. That is a different use of the same word.
Practice
Which is most likely to be a low-rise building?
Choose one answer.
A low-rise building has only a few stories, so a three-story block fits. A fifty-story tower is high-rise, and the other options are not buildings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “low-rise building”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.