confines
/ˈkɒnfaɪnz/US/ˈkɑnfaɪnz/
confines noun: the borders or limits of an area. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of confine.
Noun
confines pl (plural only)
- The borders or limits of an area.
- It has not been used for many years, and although it was impracticable to photograph the engine in the small confines of the shed it was possible to obtain a picture of the plate which it still carries showing the former ownership.1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 77
- The elements that restrain someone.
- "I think that there comes a point where people begin to get bored within their own confines, so there is definitely an opportunity to encourage travel - even though it will be a different sort of arrangement than we've been used to in the past.2020 December 2, Mark Phillips, “Rebuilding Rail in the 2020s”, in RAIL, page 46
- The scope or range of a subject.
Also used as
confines is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of confine.
Phrases with confines
Words that rhyme with confines
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- bines
- bread lines
- breadlines
- brines
- carbines
- clementines
- co-signs
- coal mines
- coalmines
- colour outside the lines
- cosigns
- cosines
- defines
- designs
- dines
- fine lines
- fuel lines
- gas lines
- kines
- maligns
- mines
- misdefines
- ninety-nines
- number nines
- overdefines
- overlines
- overmines
- pines
- redefines
- refines
- relines
- serpentines
- shines
- shrines
- signs
- sixty-nines
- spines
- sublines
- telephone lines
- turpentines
- undefines
- underdefines
- underlines
- undermines
- vines
- water lines
- waterlines
- whines
Questions about confines
- What does confines mean?
- Confines means the borders or limits of an area.
- What part of speech is confines?
- Confines is a noun.
- How do you pronounce confines?
- Confines is pronounced /ˈkɑnfaɪnz/ (US).
Words near confines in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: confines (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-confines.wav.
Cite this entry: “confines.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/confines. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.