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
President Bukele made the offer to incarcerate deportees and prisoners from the US at the Cecot during a recent visit to the Central American nation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2025
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
The researchers found a prison system hostile to the needs of the people it incarcerates.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2023
Castellanos was only the eighth inmate granted compassionate release this year across a prison system that incarcerates about 95,000 people, said Mary Xjimenez, a spokeswoman for the state corrections department.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 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
Our prison system incarcerates two million people more than any other country on earth.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2022
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
The US Census Bureau forecasts that by 2030, at least one-third of the incarcerated population will be over 50 years old.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Nick is incarcerated and his basic needs — housing, food, medical care — are being met by the State,” the filing said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Louisiana established its fund in 2005 and today is one of 39 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that compensate the wrongfully incarcerated.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
My friend Susan Slotnick taught modern dance to incarcerated men inside New York state prisons for over 20 years.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Jews, as such, until I got to high school, were all incarcerated in the Old Testament, and their names were Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Job, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
It has fewer prisons thanks to a dramatic decline in the number of people the state is incarcerating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2026
All litigation is frozen, including cases where the DOJ was investigating and litigating jurisdictions for incarcerating people in inhumane conditions, and the department is throwing out some preexisting consent decrees.
From Slate ● Jul. 5, 2025
Judge David De Pas said as he delivered the verdict that "the state of health of the main protagonists ethically prohibits incarcerating anyone".
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2025
“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.
