inmate
Americannoun
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a person who is confined in a prison, hospital, etc.
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Archaic. a person who dwells with others in the same house.
noun
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a person who is confined to an institution such as a prison or hospital See also resident
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obsolete a person who lives with others in a house
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inmate
Compare meaning
How does inmate compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An inmate is a person who lives in a specific place, especially someone who's confined there, like a prisoner. You can call yourself an Inmate if you get sent to your room, but usually inmates are behind bars in "the big house." You can talk about a hospital inmate or the inmates at a local boarding school, but it's most common to use inmate and prisoner interchangeably. Originally, in the 16th century, an inmate was "one allowed to live in a house rented by another" — a roommate who's not on the lease, in other words. This meaning comes from in and mate, "friend or companion." By the 1830s, inmate had come to mean "one confined to an institution."
Vocabulary lists containing inmate
Al Capone Does My Shirts
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A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
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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:
"It's this instrument of resistance… where we can really share friendship, love and our voices can be heard," Steve Happi, the former inmate who co-founded Jail Time Records, tells the BBC's Talking Movies programme.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
“The inmate Carroll impregnated is not one of the two victims in this case,” Assistant District Attorney Eric DuTemple said in an email this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Panama is preparing to announce changes to its prison system in July following inmate escapes, while Honduras plans to purchase drones from Ukraine for its anti-drug efforts.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion for the court tossed out a lawsuit brought by a Rastafarian inmate, Damon Landor, against the prison guards who forcibly shaved his head despite his religious objections.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
When I asked him where it was, he said his shirt was to be laundered by the notorious gangster inmate Al Capone.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
Footage shared by rights groups on social media showed inmates sitting outside their cells chanting "no to execution".
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Shortly after coming into power, the Labour government, faced with warnings that prisons would run out of space within days, released thousands of inmates.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
While Max spent 17 years in prison, Anna built a reputation for freeing wrongfully convicted inmates, while Tom went to work for a fancy law firm.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
Many Israelis support tougher penalties for security inmates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Historically the inmates were required to do backbreaking labor, including picking cotton, for about four cents an hour.
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.
