incommunicado

[in-kuh-myoo-ni-kah-doh]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR incommunicado ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

(especially of a prisoner) deprived of any communication with others.

Origin of incommunicado

1835–45, Americanism; < Spanish incomunicado. See in-³, communicate

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for incommunicado

isolated, secluded

Examples from the Web for incommunicado

Contemporary Examples of incommunicado

The head of al Qaeda was hiding but he was not incommunicado.
Abbottabad Documents Reveal Osama’s High Hopes for Obama Assassination
Bruce Riedel
May 5, 2012
If you want to be incommunicado for days on end, become an insurance agent, not a governor.
Sanford's Dereliction of Duty Trumps His Hypocrisy
Paul Begala
June 24, 2009
He left town without telling even his wife where he was going and was incommunicado for several days.
Runaway Governor: The Sequel
Kathleen Parker
June 23, 2009

Historical Examples of incommunicado

I really was incommunicado so far as the outside world was concerned.
The Road
Jack London
If we could have, we'd have even Introverted the Maintainer, broken all the ties that bind us, chanced it incommunicado.
The Big Time
Fritz Reuter Leiber
The officers and privates were supposed to be strictly "incommunicado," but even these found means of communication.
History of Kershaw's Brigade
D. Augustus Dickert

British Dictionary definitions for incommunicado

incommunicado

adverb, adjective

(postpositive) deprived of communication with other people, as while in solitary confinement

Word Origin for incommunicado

C19: from Spanish incomunicado, from incomunicar to deprive of communication; see in- 1, communicate

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for incommunicado

adj./adv.

1844, American English, from Spanish incomunicado, past participle of incomunicar "deprive of communication," from in- "not" + comunicar "communicate," from Latin communicare "to share, impart" (see communication).