gulag

Syllables: gu·lag/ˈɡuːlɑɡ/US/ˈɡuˌlɑɡ/

gulag noun: also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).

Image: Rights: Kauno IX forto muziejus / Kaunas 9th Fort Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

gulag (plural gulags)

(historical) Also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).
- One important difference between the GULAG system and the Nazi concentration camps was that a person sentenced to five years of hard labor in a Soviet labor camp could expect, assuming he or she survived, to be released at the end of the sentence.[2006?], David Hosford, Pamela Kachurin, Thomas Lamont, “Day 1 Content Essay: The Establishment and Scope of the GULAG System”, in GULAG: Soviet Prison Camps and Their Legacy […], [U.S.A.]: National...
(broadly) A prison camp, especially one used to hold political prisoners.
- Nevertheless, the Trump administration has continued to insist that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous gang member in order to justify sending him to an overseas Gulag that has been accused of torturing inmates.2025 April 10, Adam Serwer, “The Confrontation Between Trump and the Supreme Court Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2025
- The subtext of Knowles’s tweet was also clear: [Nayib] Bukele has partnered with the Trump administration to hold immigrants deported from America, with no due process, in El Salvador’s most notorious gulag.2025 June 14, Christopher Mathias, “JD Vance threatened to deport him. The ‘menswear guy’ is posting through it”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2025
(also, broadly, figuratively) A place where, or political system in which, people with dissident views are routinely oppressed.

Verb

gulag (third-person singular simple present gulags, present participle gulaging or gulagging, simple past and past participle gulaged or gulagged)

(also, figuratively, informal, transitive) To compel (someone) into a forced labour camp or a similar place of confinement or exile.
- Regulative censorships can be amended or revolutionized in ways that raise or lower bodycounts, numbers of books banned or citizens ghettoed or gulaged.1988, Sue Curry Jansen, Censorship: The Knot that Binds Power and Knowledge (Communication and Society), New York, N.Y.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8
- The marriage would be the last good thing in [Spencer] Haywood's life for a long time. He was gulaged to basketball Siberia—the now-defunct New Orleans franchise—for his failure to resurrect the Knicks, but at [Kareem Abdul-]Jabbar's urging the Lakers acquired him in 1980.1993 September, Nelson George, “Haywired”, in Jonathan Van Meter, editor, Vibe, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc. Ventures, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 116, column 3

Proper noun capitalized: GULAG

GULAG

(historical) The government agency in charge of the Soviet Union's network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960.
- The millions of slave-labourers at the disposal of GULAG played an important economic role, and indeed became accepted as a normal component of the Soviet economy.1968, Robert Conquest, “In the Labour Camps”, in The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, part II (The Yezhov Years), page...

Noun (2) capitalized: GULAG

GULAG (plural GULAGs)

Alternative letter-case form of gulag.
- One important difference between the GULAG system and the Nazi concentration camps was that a person sentenced to five years of hard labor in a Soviet labor camp could expect, assuming he or she survived, to be released at the end of the sentence.[2006?], David Hosford, Pamela Kachurin, Thomas Lamont, “Day 1 Content Essay: The Establishment and Scope of the GULAG System”, in GULAG: Soviet Prison Camps and Their Legacy […], [U.S.A.]: National...

Noun (3) capitalized: Gulag

Gulag (plural Gulags)

Alternative letter-case form of gulag.

gulag meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Punjabi

gulag in Hindi

system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s): गूलाग gūlāg

gulag in Marathi

system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s): गुलाग gulāg
place where, or political system in which, people with dissident views are routinely oppressed: गुलाग gulāg

gulag in Urdu

system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s): گولاگ gūlāg

gulag in Punjabi

system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s): ਗੁਲਾਗ gulāg

More languagesFewer languages

gulag in Arabic: غُولَاغ ḡulāḡ, جُولَاج gulāg, مُعَسْكَر عَمْل muʕaskar ʕaml
gulag in Indonesian: gulag
gulag in Persian: گولاگ gulâg
gulag in Thai: กูลัก

Examples of gulag in a sentence

Knowledge that does not serve the state ideological apparatus or the dominant ruling, economic, intellectual or political force is knowledge or ideas that are consciously suppressed and "gulaged".2017, Susan S. M. Edwards, “Cyber-grooming Young Women for Terrorist Activity: Dominant and Subjugated Explanatory Narratives”, in Emilio...
The Technical Arts building had the Cape Verdeans and the Haitians … all of whom were Gulagged there in a building which they not-so-ironically called "the island."2019, Jal Mehta, Sarah Fine, “The Progressive Frontier: Project-based Learning”, in In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the...
As if he'd been gulagged to the Big Bang of belonging.2020, Fady Joudah, “Your Name is on the List and Other Vignettes”, in Pauline Kaldas, Khaled Mattawa, editors, Beyond Memory: An Anthology...

Forms of gulag

Noun
plural	gulags
alternative form	Gulag
alternative form	GULAG
plural	GULAGs
plural	Gulags
Verb
third-person singular present	gulags
present participle	gulaging
present participle	gulagging
past participle	gulaged
past	gulaged
past participle	gulagged
past	gulagged

Plural of gulag: gulags

Origin of gulag

Borrowed from Russian ГУЛА́Г (GULÁG), the acronym of Гла́вное управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х лагере́й (Glávnoje upravlénije ispravítelʹno-trudovýx lageréj, “Chief Administration of Corrective-Labor Camps”), the government agency in charge of the Soviet Union’s network of forced labour camps, which was established in 1918 and formally abolished in 1960: see GULAG.

Words formed from gulag

Questions about gulag

What does gulag mean?: Gulag means also GULAG: the system of all Soviet labour camps and prisons in use, especially during the Stalinist period (1930s–1950s).
What is gulag in Hindi?: Gulag in Hindi is गूलाग (gūlāg). See Gulag meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gulag in a sentence?: Knowledge that does not serve the state ideological apparatus or the dominant ruling, economic, intellectual or political force is knowledge or ideas that are consciously suppressed and "gulaged".
What part of speech is gulag?: Gulag can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gulag?: Gulag is pronounced /ˈɡuːlɑɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of gulag?: The plural of gulag is gulags.

Words near gulag in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gulag (page history and authors); GULAG (page history and authors); Gulag (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gulag.wav.

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