imprisonment
Americannoun
-
imprisonments
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of imprisonment
First recorded in 1250–1300; from Old French emprisonnement, equivalent to imprison ( def. ) + -ment ( def. )
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:
The state imprisonment rate in 2019 was the lowest it had been since 1988, and it had shrunk by 20% since 2007.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
As expected, the court rendered a guilty verdict against the Rueggs in August 1932, though it downgraded the death sentence to life imprisonment in a concession to international opinion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
He was later awarded nearly $1 million from the Victim Compensation Board of California for his wrongful imprisonment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Following her conviction, Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
He had to get out of his imprisonment, and so he attempted to surgically remove himself—quickly and precisely, slicing away at his homeland, aware that it would be a permanent farewell, never to be undone.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
After this, there will be a lot of going back and forth across the Channel; crimes of the aristocracy; Darnay’s own Big Secret revealed; more trials, more imprisonments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
He reunited with his wife in the final months of his life, as he suffered from ill-health caused by his imprisonments.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2024
Many voters appeared fed up with the military’s rule, imprisonments, censorship, and manipulation of politics after the army’s coups in 2006 and 2014.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
“It’s disturbing, it’s terrifying, and it’s a major violation of protected speech,” Freedom House’s Nate Schenkkan said of the recent imprisonments of Western-based Saudis.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2022
Both of us were spared, in body at least, by the stone walls of our different imprisonments, and altered in spirit, in ways we’re struggling to understand.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
