captive
noun
a prisoner.
captives
-
pluralof captive.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
Because the country had far less captives, they paid Karamanli $60,000, worth roughly $1.7 million today, but the yearly duties did stop, so there’s that.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
The captives are from around Ngoshe, a mainly Muslim community near the border with Cameroon.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
In all, millions of African captives were shipped to the West Indies and Brazil, many times the number taken to British North America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
But somewhere along the line, economics was all but consumed by math, and things everybody had always known—that humans are fickle, emotional, bad at reasoning, captives of their prior mistakes, etc.—were forgotten or cast aside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
During the long voyage, the meal offered to captives was usually little more than a worm-ridden gruel—a thin, watery boiled cereal—or a concoction called “dab-a-dab,” a mash of beans, rice, and corn.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
