internment

[ in-turn-muhnt ]

noun

1. an act or instance of interning, or confining a person or ship to prescribed limits during wartime:

   the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

2. the state of being interned; confinement.

Word History and Origins

Origin of internment¹

First recorded in 1865–70; intern ² + -ment

Example Sentences

When his father, James, was 7 and living in Washington, Tad told me, he was sent to an internment camp.

From Washington Post

In February of 1942, influential writer Walter Lippman amplified Knox’s warnings of a “fifth column” comprised of immigrants and their descendants, and criticized Washington for hesitating to impose “mass internment” of these “enemy aliens.”

From Time

“Clark and Division,” by Naomi HiraharaIt’s 1944 and Rose Ito is about to be reunited with her family after their release from an internment camp in California when she is run over by a subway train in Chicago and dies.

From Washington Post

The Marcoses have been friendly with the Dutertes in two previous elections, and it was Duterte who gave the remains of the disgraced dictator a hero’s internment in 2016.

From Time

There lie Eddie Lockard and Reuben Everett, the only massacre victims whose graves were marked — likely because they were buried after their families were released from internment sites.

From Science News

What did you learn from your five-year internment in Vietnam?

From The Daily Beast

In the episode “Internment,” he reminds Rick of the dangers of slipping into darkness.

From The Daily Beast

And the second remark came during the Japanese internment conversation.

From The Daily Beast

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, she was among the tens of thousands Japanese-Americans dispatched to internment camps.

From The Daily Beast

He was finally released in 2004, after almost 40 hellish years of brutal internment.

From The Daily Beast

None need our help more than the officers and men of those internment camps.

From Project Gutenberg

To avoid the dreaded internment camp he had successfully passed as a Luxemburger.

From Project Gutenberg

A once-loved prince of German blood had been frozen out of the navy, and the internment camps were growing like boom towns.

From Project Gutenberg

Everywhere is dead-lines and permissions and internment camps and persecutions, and all who are not in prison are afraid.

From Project Gutenberg

Well, amongst these liberated captives was one who told a sad tale of starvation at his internment camp.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bondage
• confinement
• custody
• imprisonment
• incarceration
• slavery