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.
Days later, sanitation workers cleared the encampment where he’d been living.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 5, 2026
Five men and two women were arrested on Sunday outside the main gate of Lakenheath airbase during a peace encampment against the Iran war, Suffolk Police said.
From BBC • Apr. 5, 2026
Robert Martinez, 40, moved to a Budget Inn in North Hills last summer from an encampment near the 405 Freeway.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 5, 2026
Three days after that exchange, a man named Gregory Antone had been at the Quirky encampment, left, and returned.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026
Three men were positioned at the encampment just below him.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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.
