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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Iran accused Qatar of holding three of its air force pilots prisoner, deepening a mystery that dates back to the beginning of the war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
What could happen to prisoner early release scheme now?
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
In one, noting Kurtág’s affinity to Samuel Beckett, Pintscher led a transfixing performance of Morton Feldman’s “For Samuel Beckett” holding an audience prisoner for 50 minutes within a chord that won’t go away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
As a prisoner, I don’t have direct access to Google search, but occasionally when I’m on the phone with my sister Angela I ask her to search “Robert Lee Williams journalist.”
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Undoubtedly. Now, turn to that paper, and tell me whether it distinctly states that the prisoner expressly said that his legal advisers instructed him altogether to reserve his defence?”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Iran now says they are being held by Qatar as prisoners and is demanding their release.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
And there may have been even more important acts, if indeed the hotel’s cellars were used to hide escaped French prisoners of war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Venezuela freed dozens more political prisoners Friday, the government said, in a sign of progress in talks to reconcile the nation following Nicolas Maduro's ouster.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
"I don't feel like the victims should be punished again just because they can't hold prisoners for their full sentence."
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
On April 12, 1945, when the German guards fled from the Red Army as it approached the concentration camp, Nina and her fellow prisoners cut the lock off the gate and let themselves out.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
