prison
Americannoun
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prisons
plural
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a building for the confinement of persons held while awaiting trial, persons sentenced after conviction, etc.
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any place of confinement or involuntary restraint.
noun
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a public building used to house convicted criminals and accused persons remanded in custody and awaiting trial See also jail penitentiary reformatory
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any place of confinement or seeming confinement
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of prison
before 1150; Middle English prison, earlier prisun < Old French, variant of preson imprisonment, a prison < Latin pre ( hē ) nsiōn- (stem of prehēnsiō ) a seizure, arrest, equivalent to prehēns ( us ) (past participle of prehendere to seize) + -iōn- -ion; doublet of prehension
Explanation
A prison is a place where criminals and people waiting for trials are locked up. If you’ve been cooped up in the house, you might feel like you’re stuck inside prison walls. But if you’re not, go outside already. A person who's been sentenced to time in prison is called a prisoner. Prisons vary, but usually prisoners are confined to a small cell, with time spent in large groups for eating, working, and exercise. If you feel like you're stuck in a place or a situation, you might call that prison: "I can't wait to go home — this summer camp is like a prison!" The Latin root is prension, "laying hold of."
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:
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement following allegations in an NBC News report of his lavish federal prison lifestyle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Another federal law prohibits voter intimidation, with up to a yearlong prison sentence for anybody who intimidates, threatens, or coerces somebody else with the purpose of interfering with another person’s right to vote.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2026
The prosecution is seeking 150 years in prison for each of the accused.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
A new round of protests was under way Thursday, including a large gathering at Place de la Bastille, the site of the prison that was stormed and torn down in the French Revolution.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Then a prison boredom—which I soon learned to fear above all else— settled over the cell.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
But Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all executions for the rest of the year - and the head of prisons in the state said he would resign on Saturday.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The news outlet also reviewed footage obtained from inside the correctional facility which showed Combs using a phone, a prohibited item across state and federal prisons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Quite simply, prisons are almost full - and not for the first time.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Inmates who have been released early from prisons in England and Wales are pictured on the front page of the Metro, on what the paper is calling "Get out of jail free day".
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
I believe there should be a total ban on housing children under the age of eighteen with adults in jails or prisons.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
