prison
/ˈpɹɪzn̩/
prison noun: a place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the government.
Noun
prison (countable and uncountable, plural prisons)
- A place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the government.
- The cold stone walls of the prison had stood for over a century.
- Confinement in prison (sense 1).
- Prison was a harrowing experience for him.
- Synonyms:
- imprisonment
- Any restrictive environment, such as a harsh academy or home.
- The academy was a prison for many of its students because of its strict teachers.
Verb
prison (third-person singular simple present prisons, present participle prisoning, simple past and past participle prisoned)
- To imprison.
prison meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
prison in Hindi
- place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes
- कारागार kārāgār, बन्दीघर bandīghar, जेल jel, क़ैदख़ाना qaidxānā
prison in Tamil
- place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes
- சிறை ciṟai, சிறைச்சாலை ciṟaiccālai
prison in Marathi
- place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes
- तुरुंग turuṅga
prison in Urdu
- place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes
- زِنْدان zindān, قَید خانَہ qaid xāna, جیل jel
More languagesFewer languages
- prison in Bengali
- কারাগার karagar
- prison in Telugu
- జైలు jailu, కారాగారం kārāgāraṁ
- prison in Malayalam
- കാരാഗൃഹം kārāgr̥haṁ, ജയില് jayilŭ, തുറുങ്ക് tuṟuṅkŭ
- prison in Kannada
- ಜೈಲು jailu
- prison in Punjabi
- ਜੇਲ੍ਹ jelh, ਬੰਦੀਖਾਨਾ bandīkhānā, ਬੰਦੀਖ਼ਾਨਾ bandīxānā, ਕੈਦਖਾਨਾ kaidkhānā
- prison in Gujarati
- તુરંગ turaṅg
- prison in Odia
- କାରାଗାର, ଜେଲ୍
- prison in Sanskrit
- कारागृह kārāgṛha, कारागार kārāgāra
- prison in Sinhala
- සිරගෙදර siragedara
- prison in Assamese
- কাৰাগাৰ karagar
- prison in Nepali
- थाना thānā
- prison in Pashto
- زندان zendān, اړتون aṛtun, بنديخانه bandixāna, جېل jel
- prison in Tagalog
- bilangguan, piitan
- prison in Arabic
- سِجْن sijn
- prison in Malay
- penjara
- prison in Indonesian
- penjara, bui
- prison in Thai
- คุก kúk, กรงขัง grong-kǎng, เรือนจำ rʉʉan-jam, พันธนาคาร pan-tá-naa-kaan
- prison in Vietnamese
- tù, nhà tù
- prison in Myanmar
- အကျဉ်းထောင် a.kyany:htaung, ထောင် htaung
Examples of prison in a sentence
- It may be prison, but at least I'm getting three square meals a day.
- The judge sentenced the embezzler to ten years in prison, along with a hefty fine.
- The incorrigibles in the prison population are either lifers or habitual reoffenders.
Synonyms of prison
Forms of prison
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | prisons |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | prisons |
| present participle | prisoning |
| past participle | prisoned |
| past | prisoned |
Origin of prison
From Middle English prisoun, prison, from Old English prisūn, a borrowing from Old French prison, from Latin prehensiōnem, accusative singular of prehensiō, from the verb prehendō. Doublet of prehension.
Words formed from prison
- antiprison
- cryoprison
- debtors' prison
- dispersal prison
- disprison
- emprison
- enprison
- imprison
- in prison
- megaprison
- military prison
- nonprison
- one-bar prison
- open prison
- passport prison
- postprison
- post prison
- Prislam
- Prisneyland
- prisonable
- prison bars
- prison base
- prison bitch
- prison-bound
- prison break
- prison breaker
- prison breaking
- prison camp
- prison cell
- prison chaser
- prisondom
- prisoner
- prison farm
- prison fever
- prison flower
- prisonful
- prison gay
- prison governor
- prisonguard
- prison guard
- prison hooch
- prison house
- prisonhouse
- prison-industrial complex
- prisonization
- prison justice
- prison labor
- prisonless
- prisonlike
- prisonment
- prison napalm
- prison officer
- prisonous
- prison pocket
- prison psychosis
- prison purse
- prison record
- prison ring
- prison sentence
- prison state
Phrases with prison
Words that rhyme with prison
Questions about prison
- What does prison mean?
- Prison means a place or institution where people are held against their will, in the US especially for long-term confinement, as of those convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered undesirable by the government.
- What is prison in Hindi?
- Prison in Hindi is कारागार (kārāgār), बन्दीघर (bandīghar), जेल (jel). See Prison meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is prison?
- Prison can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce prison?
- Prison is pronounced /ˈpɹɪzn̩/.
- What is the plural of prison?
- The plural of prison is prisons.
Words near prison in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prison (page history and authors); prison (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); কাৰাগাৰ (Assamese) (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: en-us-prison.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prison.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prison. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.