confinement

American  

[kuhn-fahyn-muhnt] / kənˈfaɪn mənt /

noun

• confinements
  plural

1. the act of confining.

2. the state of being confined.

3. the lying-in of a woman in childbed; accouchement; childbirth.

4. Military. incarceration in a guardhouse or prison while awaiting trial or as a punishment (distinguished from arrest).

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confinement British  

/ kənˈfaɪnmənt /

noun

1. the act of confining or the state of being confined

2. the period from the onset of labour to the birth of a child

3. physics another name for containment

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonconfinement
  noun
• postconfinement
  noun
• preconfinement
  noun
• self-confinement
  noun
• semiconfinement
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• confinements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of confinement

1640–50; confine + -ment; compare French 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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

confinement confinements

But crucially, the text does not specify what will become of Ocalan, 77, who has spent the past 27 years being held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island near Istanbul.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

It may affect both the chiral transition and the transition associated with quark confinement.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026

Prison staff reportedly separated the two men and Combs was placed in solitary confinement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

OpenAI’s revelation this past week that its AI models escaped confinement and hacked another tech company’s systems gave new credibility to fears that this technology can, in fact, go sci-fi villain mode.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

He wrote later to his cousin and good friend William Darwin Fox, “What an awful affair a confinement is: it knocked me up almost as much as it did Emma herself.”

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

Armani took away the restrictions and confinements of stiffer styles that went before him - making men feel sophisticated and women empowered in the workplace.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2025

And Rikers is not a normal jail — a place of brief confinements pending trials and sentencings.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023

"We have just had two years of pandemic with confinements which put our activity to a halt ... now tourists are returning and new booksellers are settling in."

From Reuters ● Aug. 19, 2022

After reviewing videos and interviewing workers and youths, board staff found that most of the confinements did violate regulations, Ganter said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2021

In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?

From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell

Related Words

• custody
• detention
• incarceration
• internment
• jail
• repression