internment

noun

in·​tern·​ment in-ˈtərn-mənt How to pronounce internment (audio)
ˈin-ˌtərn-
plural internments
: the act of interning someone or the state of being interned
His parents had never told him about the exclusion laws, or the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the subject had not come up in his textbooks.Timothy Egan
Even in the midst of betrayal and the resulting alienation experienced in the internment, there exists the unnegotiable state of human bonds and possibility for reconciliation.Fumitaka Matsuoka
… an American who spent World War II with his parents in an internment camp.Philip Siekman

Examples of internment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In 2017, as a mass internment campaign targeting Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim groups in the far northwest was taking shape, Xi joined a delegation led by Chen Quanguo, often considered the architect of the crackdown. Christian Shepherd, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2024 Greg Ito, a fourth-generation Japanese American artist, whose grandparents met in an American internment camp, was born in Los Angeles. Robin Pogrebin, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024 After forcibly removing the individuals from their communities, the government sent them to inland internment camps in Colorado, California, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas and Idaho. Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024 Beyond that, Trump’s policy positions, such as his vows to create massive internment camps and deport millions of unauthorized immigrants, including many who have lived in the U.S. for decades, aren’t going to sound like stability to many voters. David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2024 Each steel rectangle, 11 by 19 cm (roughly 4 by 7.5 in), has a square hole, and is engraved with the person’s name and profession and their dates of arrest, internment, or execution, and formal rehabilitation. Kevin Liffey, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Nov. 2023 Think of the extradition of Japanese Americans to internment camps or President Truman’s use of the undeclared Korean War as a pretext to seize American steel mills in 1952. Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023 Another sensitive issue came about when Liu made headlines in a New Yorker interview expressing support for China’s mass internment of Uyghur Muslims. James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Jan. 2024 The United States government policy at the time unjustly placed over 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. Thomas Bostick, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'internment.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of internment was in 1850

Dictionary Entries Near internment

Cite this Entry

“Internment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internment. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

internment

noun
in·​tern·​ment
in-ˈtərn-mənt,
ˈin-ˌtərn-
: the act of interning : the state of being interned

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