prisoner
Americannoun
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prisoners
plural
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a person who is confined in prison or kept in custody, especially as the result of legal process.
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a person or thing that is deprived of liberty or kept in restraint.
noun
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a person deprived of liberty and kept in prison or some other form of custody as a punishment for a crime, while awaiting trial, or for some other reason
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a person confined by any of various restraints
we are all prisoners of time
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informal to be uncompromising and resolute in one's actions
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to capture and hold someone as a prisoner, esp as a prisoner of war
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of prisoner
Compare meaning
How does prisoner compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A prisoner is a person being held in prison as a punishment. During wartime a prisoner is someone held captive by the enemy. Alternately, if you’re so attractive you can’t leave the house, you’re a prisoner of your own good looks. Someone who's caught robbing a bank or stealing a car will probably become a prisoner, locked inside a prison for as long as the sentence specifies. If you feel stuck or confined in some way, you may consider yourself a metaphorical prisoner, like an actor who whines that he’s a prisoner of his own success, since he’s not able to go anywhere without cameras flashing and fans screaming.
Vocabulary lists containing prisoner
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.
See Examples For:
She summed up her goal in a post on X: “For the reunification of every family, for the freedom of every political prisoner, for the freedom of Venezuela.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
Khyliuk was returned to Ukraine in August 2025 in a prisoner exchange.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
"They were bobbing around in the sea and then the very next day they were found by British aircraft, British vessels and then taken away to the prisoner of war camp," he explained.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has demanded an official apology over the prisoner revelation.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
The tsar held Alfhercht’s brother prisoner and wanted Alfhercht as a prisoner too.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
A drone search of a forest near the prison led to eight more escaped prisoners being caught.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
“I felt a huge burden on my shoulders when I left prison that made me feel I owed something to my fellow prisoners who were left behind,” Panahi told The Envelope earlier this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
News agency PTI reported that all 17 recaptured prisoners have been moved to high-security correctional prisons.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
While the law applied statewide, it disproportionately impacted Shelby County, where half of the state’s 40 death row prisoners were prosecuted.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
Two officers, one male, one female, were strolling the aisle between the benches while the prisoners bent to their tasks.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
