incarcerate
Americanverb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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incarceratesimple
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incarceratessimple
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have incarceratedperfect
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has incarceratedperfect
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am incarceratingprogressive
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are incarceratingprogressive
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is incarceratingprogressive
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have been incarceratingperfect progressive
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has been incarceratingperfect progressive
Past
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incarceratedsimple
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had incarceratedperfect
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was incarceratingprogressive
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were incarceratingprogressive
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had been incarceratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incarcerate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Medieval Latin incarcerātus, past participle of incarcerāre “to imprison,” equivalent to in- “in” + carcer “prison” + -ātus past participle suffix; see in- 2, -ate 1
Explanation
Use the verb incarcerate when you need to put someone behind bars in a big way, meaning, send them to prison, like those who, after being found guilty of a crime and sentenced, become incarcerated. The word incarcerate entered the English language in the sixteenth century, tracing back to the Latin word meaning “imprisoned.” If you incarcerate people, that means you imprison them for a predetermined amount of time in a jail, prison, or a detention center. It’s good to know the meaning of incarcerate, but make sure you never get so close to it that you have firsthand knowledge of the word.
Vocabulary lists containing incarcerate
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Hole in My Life
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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.
See Examples For:
Arleo, the federal judge in Newark, N.J., said she had no power to review or oversee the bankruptcy process or incarcerate individuals unless they are charged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
“We’re not going to turn our backs. We’re not going to use our jails to somehow incarcerate and criminalize people who are on the street.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2024
States that build more prisons incarcerate more people.
From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2024
We can’t arrest, incarcerate and punish our way out of this complex problem.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2024
“I see they spared no expense to incarcerate us,” I say.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
County incarcerates about 13,000 people — including roughly 1,500 women — throughout its network of jails watched over by sheriff’s deputies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2025
Those numbers, however, don't amount to much in the grand scheme, given the rate at which Louisiana "incarcerates and prosecutes and entangles people in the criminal legal system left and right every day," Romero said.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2024
It isn’t clear why she was serving her sentence at Hiland, which typically incarcerates state prisoners.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2023
The jail historically incarcerates almost exclusively Black and Brown people and is currently more than 90 percent people of color, she said.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2023
The frost that imprisons the alligator in the Mississippi as effectually cuts it off from food and action as the drought which incarcerates the crocodile in the sun-burnt clay of a Ceylon tank.
From Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon by Sir James Emerson Tennent
At the time Roberts interviewed Pike, she was incarcerated for at least 23 hours a day, only let out for a one-hour walk on some days.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
When the federal government incarcerated Japanese Americans from the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere in the 1940s, an activist lugged books from Vroman’s to the Manzanar camp in the Owens Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Earlier this year, Kao agreed to meet a ProPublica reporter at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, South Dakota, where he is incarcerated.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Walters was incarcerated for a decade when he was suddenly discovered by online creators and reality TV denizens.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
An infuriated and confused Mr. Levy would return, this time determined to have him incarcerated at once.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
"If you're going to ban smacking effectively, are we going to band grounding children because you're taking away the freedom? You're incarcerating children."
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Of course, the DOJ could further ease understaffing by incarcerating fewer people.
From Slate ● Jul. 5, 2025
The cost of incarcerating an unhoused person is approximately $106,000 per year — and that does not account for policing and court administration expenses.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
“Is there a willingness to concede that incarcerating someone with dementia,” she asks, “is, maybe, questionable?”
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2023
It would be, in effect, paying the government for incarcerating him for a month.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
