Incarceration

//ɪŋˌkɑː(ɹ)səˈɹeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of confining, or the state of being confined; imprisonment. US, countable, uncountable

    "Perpetrated over time, better walk the narrow line / Never challenge what we say / In the darkness of our mind, never thought we'd be so blind / Let the nightmare get away / Isolation cannot be / The best, the best that we can do / Build a cage full of rage, inner demons call your name / Suicide, your only friend / Extermination of ourselves, mass incarceration / Termination of ourselves, mass incarcerate / In the cage, in the cage / You will remain"

  2. 2
    the state of being imprisoned wordnet
  3. 3
    A strangulation, as in a hernia. countable, dated, uncountable
  4. 4
    A constriction of the hernial sac, rendering it irreducible, but not great enough to cause strangulation. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
captivitybeleaguermentbesetmentblockadeblockadingcaptivity

Example

More examples

"The U.S. incarceration rate is the highest in the world."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin incarcerātiō.

Related phrases

e-carcerationhernial sac

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