detainee
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of detainee
Explanation
A prisoner is sometimes called a detainee, especially if they're being held by a government or its military forces. Political prisoners are often referred to as detainees, as are people captured by armed forces. Legally, anyone who is being temporarily held or detained until they can be tried in a court is also called a detainee. An inmate or prisoner, on the other hand, has been convicted and imprisoned as part of a legal sentence. Detainee and detain come from the Latin root detinere, "to hold off or hold back."
Vocabulary lists containing detainee
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.
Attorneys often cannot find their people for days because ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System is delayed and sometimes does not list them at all.
From Slate • Dec. 12, 2025
You can do so by asking for a copy of the Detainee Handbook to understand the detention center’s rules, your rights and how you can communicate with loved ones.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2025
Granger served as the ranking medical department officer at Guantanamo Bay, where he was deployed shortly after the attacks on 9/11, and grew heavily involved in Camp X-Ray’s Joint Detainee Operations Group.
From Fox News • Aug. 20, 2021
An M.P. explained to Wood that the current guard force called Detainee 760 “Pillow,” because when they had arrived, several months earlier, a pillow was the only object in his possession.
From The New Yorker • Apr. 15, 2019
She warmed to the role of truth-teller, handing over a small library of Detainee Assessment Briefs, or D.A.B.s, from the American holding facility at Guantánamo Bay.
From New York Times • Jun. 12, 2017
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.
