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Synonyms

internment

American  
[in-turn-muhnt] / ɪnˈtɜrn mənt /

noun

  1. an act or instance of interning, or confining a person or ship to prescribed limits during wartime.

    the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

  2. the state of being interned; confinement.

internment British  
/ ɪnˈtɜːnmənt /

noun

    1. the act of interning or state of being interned, esp of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects

    2. ( as modifier )

      an internment camp
"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

Etymology

Origin of internment

First recorded in 1865–70; intern 2 + -ment

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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.

In 1942 he entered one of the government’s Japanese internment camps.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026

Ms. Gage deals with it by visiting the remnants of a Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, Calif., and the research facility in Los Alamos, N.M., where U.S. government scientists built the atomic bomb.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

By 1940, new policies ordered all German nationals - Jewish or not - into internment camps.

From BBC • Jul. 12, 2025

The overt racism and grotesque unfairness of Japanese-American internment eventually provoked some degree of societal reckoning, if only years later.

From Salon • Jul. 6, 2025

That hollow ache I carried during the early months of internment had shrunk, over the years, to a tiny sliver of suspicion about the very person I was.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

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.