political prisoner

American  

[puh-lit-i-kuhl priz-uh-ner, priz-ner] / pəˈlɪt ɪ kəl ˈprɪz ə nər, ˈprɪz nər /

noun

• political prisoners
  plural

1. a person who is arrested or imprisoned because their political beliefs or activities are seen as a threat to the government or state.

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political prisoner British  

noun

1. someone imprisoned for holding, expressing, or acting in accord with particular political beliefs

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• political prisoners
  plural

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

political prisoner

“For now, they’re not going to get out,” said Carlos David Guillén, a former political prisoner and ex-serviceman who has debriefed American officials on the officers jailed in Venezuela.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

Playing a hard-line political prisoner in 1983 Argentina, his Valentin starts the film rejecting everything it stands for: romance, fantasy, overwhelming emotions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026

Freddy Guevara, a member of Machado’s coalition who was a political prisoner for some three years in Venezuela, said he is still hopeful.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

The latter of these books was written while Ngũgĩ was being held in a Nairobi jail as a political prisoner.

From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025

Another prisoner in his barracks had a red triangle, so he was a political prisoner who had opposed Hitler.

From "Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps" by Andrea Warren

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