noun
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the act of confining or the state of being confined
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the period from the onset of labour to the birth of a child
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physics another name for containment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of confinement
Explanation
If you're dealing with confinement to a jail cell, or your classroom, or the broom closet, you're stuck there and you can't leave. Confinement means you're being held and you can't move freely. Confinement doesn't have to be punishment. If you've got a contagious disease, your doctor may recommend confinement to your hospital room. Puppies sometimes prefer confinement in a crate to sleeping in an open room. You may also come across an old-fashioned use of the word confinement, referring to a woman in childbirth, which goes back to when women retired to their rooms to give birth and recuperate. Confinement contains the Latin root finis, "end, limit” — confinement certainly is limiting.
Vocabulary lists containing confinement
Vocabulary from "Community is the 'killer app' missing from virtual reality" by Dmitri Williams
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"The Bet" by Anton Chekhov
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Farewell to Manzanar
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“By virtue of its power, it has kept me behind bars for five years, and they could extend my confinement without justification.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
The system achieved an ultrasmall mode volume of just 5 × 10-7 λ3, representing an extraordinary level of light confinement.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2026
Now that he was out of solitary confinement, Havens’ interest in gang politics had disappeared.
From Slate • May 2, 2026
Lindsay spent an initial 57 days of detention in solitary confinement in the city of Kerman.
From BBC • May 1, 2026
By late afternoon the ringing phone, the hot weather, and my confinement were driving me nuts, so when the phone rang, I grabbed for it.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
