prisoner
Americannoun
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prisoners
plural
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a person who is confined in prison or kept in custody, especially as the result of legal process.
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a person or thing that is deprived of liberty or kept in restraint.
noun
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a person deprived of liberty and kept in prison or some other form of custody as a punishment for a crime, while awaiting trial, or for some other reason
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a person confined by any of various restraints
we are all prisoners of time
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informal to be uncompromising and resolute in one's actions
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to capture and hold someone as a prisoner, esp as a prisoner of war
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of prisoner
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How does prisoner compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A prisoner is a person being held in prison as a punishment. During wartime a prisoner is someone held captive by the enemy. Alternately, if you’re so attractive you can’t leave the house, you’re a prisoner of your own good looks. Someone who's caught robbing a bank or stealing a car will probably become a prisoner, locked inside a prison for as long as the sentence specifies. If you feel stuck or confined in some way, you may consider yourself a metaphorical prisoner, like an actor who whines that he’s a prisoner of his own success, since he’s not able to go anywhere without cameras flashing and fans screaming.
Vocabulary lists containing prisoner
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.
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Gershkovich, a US citizen, was in 2024 released in a prisoner swap, the largest exchange since the Cold War took place.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
He was released in a major prisoner swap in August 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The SPS said there were no prisoner requests for bottled water overnight on Friday but supplies were distributed.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The two countries have been at loggerheads since Ukrain's President Volodymyr Zelensky last month disclosed the prisoner transfer, sparking anger in Seoul, which said it had placed their families in North Korea at risk.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
MI6 invited Blake to London for a gentle interrogation about his years as a prisoner.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Karpenko was well-known for posting video interviews with Russian prisoners of war to his YouTube channel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Sedatives don’t always work, and there is good reason to believe that some prisoners suffer; Ms. Pike actually told us so.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
The Sheriff’s Department typically houses mentally ill prisoners at the Twin Towers, but Magaña’s family claims he was not transferred to a specialized unit within the jail that deals with more challenging cases.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
The woman also criticised what she described as the "poor communication" with prisoners.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
“All prisoners must report for the count. If she’s sick she can register at sick call.”
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
