name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun

1. 1
   An island in San Francisco Bay California, United States, formerly the site of a famous prison; in full, Alcatraz Island.
2. 2
   Ellipsis of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a famous former U.S. federal prison, on the island. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

   "Alcatraz was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986."

3. 3
   Ellipsis of Fort Alcatraz, a U.S. coastal defense fort, predecessor of the prison. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

Synonyms

All synonyms

bincalaboosejail

Example

More examples

"The Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963."

Etymology

From Spanish Isla de los Alcatraces (“island of gannets”), named by Juan Manuel de Ayala, an explorer of San Francisco Bay.

Related phrases

Alligator Alcatraz

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.