encampment
Americannoun
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an act or instance of encamping; lodgment in a camp.
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the place or quarters occupied in camping; camp.
noun
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the act of setting up a camp
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the place where a camp, esp a military camp, is set up
Etymology
Origin of encampment
Explanation
An encampment is a temporary area made up of tents or other makeshift shelters set up by campers, soldiers, or people without permanent homes. An encampment can provide shelter, community, and a base of operations, whether for recreation, protest, or military purposes. Encampments may pop up when people are displaced by war, natural disasters, or other hardships. Sometimes people create an encampment at a music festival or during a protest so that there is a place to stay and rest without having to leave the area.
Vocabulary lists containing encampment
Road Home
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Novel Study: The Grapes of Wrath, Chapters 13–21
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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.
Each action involves months of preparation, developing a by-name list of people in the encampment and offering shelter at a county-purchased motel in Lancaster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
A water main break flooded streets in a Westlake neighborhood Thursday, including a nearby homeless encampment that was surrounded by water in the early morning hours.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The fear is that a spark from an encampment could be whipped by winds and quickly turn into a devastating blaze across Malibu’s fire-prone hills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
For the first live test of an atomic weapon, an unusual encampment sprung up in the New Mexico desert.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
We were afforded that brief glimpse of the terrain—the soldiers of the 14th already marching across the bridge toward the enemy encampment in their rows, six by six; and we in rows to follow them.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
