Word.ws English Dictionary

detainee

UK/ˌdɪteɪˈniː/

detainee noun: someone who is detained, especially in custody or confinement.

detainee: a black and white photo of a window on a brick wall
Photo by Aram Ramazyan on Unsplash

Noun

detainee (plural detainees)

  1. Someone who is detained, especially in custody or confinement.
    • In his statement, Miliband said the two flights had refuelled at Diego Garcia. Each one had a single detainee on board who did not leave the aircraft.2008 February 22, Richard Norton-Taylor and Julian Borger, “Embarrassed Miliband admits two US rendition flights refuelled on British soil”, in The Guardian
    • Louis Louaillier, a U.S. citizen, journalist, and assemblymember, wrote in his local newspaper, The Louisiana Courier, that detainees should go to a civil judge...2013, Anthony Gregory, The Power of Habeas Corpus in America: From the King's Prerogative to the War on Terror, page 74

detainee meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Arabic

detainee in Tamil

காவலில் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளோர்

detainee in Kannada

ಬಂಧನದಲ್ಲಿರುವವನು, ಸ್ಥಾನಬದ್ಧ

detainee in Arabic

one who is detained
أسير ʔasīr, أسيرة ʔasīra, أسرى ʔasrā, أسيرات ʔasīrāt

Examples of detainee in a sentence

  • The three detainees were actually army defectors wearing civilian clothing.
  • Once the planes arrived in El Salvador, the male detainees⁷ were stripped and shackled.
  • Former detainees have described physical abuse, mistreatment and hours of indoctrination in official Communist Party ideology.

All 12 example sentences with detainee

Forms of detainee

pluraldetainees

Plural of detainee: detainees

Origin of detainee

From detain + -ee.

Words formed from detainee

Questions about detainee

What does detainee mean?
Detainee means someone who is detained, especially in custody or confinement.
What is detainee in Tamil?
Detainee in Tamil is காவலில் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளோர். See Detainee meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is detainee?
Detainee is a noun.
How do you pronounce detainee?
Detainee is pronounced /ˌdɪteɪˈniː/ (UK).
What is the plural of detainee?
The plural of detainee is detainees.

Words near detainee in the dictionary

  1. detain
  2. detainable
  3. detainder
  4. detainders
  5. detained
  6. detainee
  7. detainees
  8. detaineeship
  9. detainer
  10. detainers
  11. detainest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: detainee (page history and authors); detainee (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detainee (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Sapaa-detainee.wav.

Cite this entry: “detainee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/detainee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.