semibasement

Noun

semibasement (plural semibasements)

1. A basement which is only partially below ground level.
   • In what has become the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's highest-grossing film, a struggling family of four, the Kims, who live in a semi-basement apartment in a forgotten warren of Seoul, ingratiate themselves through lies, document forgeries, and beguiling charm into service roles at the...2019 December 4, Ian Crouch, “The Best Jokes of 2019”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Apr 2023
   • Many property owners converted their basements into secondary suites in cities like Vancouver, where semibasements are typical. These owners ingeniously created thousands of new housing units by adding extra living space, converting underused spaces, and creatively carving out space.2022 December 20, Vinit Mukhija, Remaking the American Dream: The Informal and Formal Transformation of Single-Family Housing Cities, Cambridge, M.A.; London: The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 237

   Synonyms:

   half basement, halfbasement, half-basement, partial basement