1
: a person deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody
especially
: one on trial or in prison
2
: someone restrained as if in prison
a prisoner of her own conscience
see also take-no-prisoners, take no prisoners
Examples of prisoner in a Sentence
He was captured by rebel forces and kept as their prisoner for several months before they set him free.
The families were held prisoner for four days.
Recent Examples on the Web
Trilateral talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine were held in Abu Dhabi in early February, where the sides met twice but emerged with only a limited breakthrough — agreeing to a 314-person prisoner exchange, the first such swap in five months.
—
Ashley Carnahan, FOXNews.com, 11 Feb. 2026
The film centers on inmates at an Indonesian correctional facility whose fragile power structures fracture when a new prisoner arrives with a vengeful supernatural entity that hunts those with the darkest aura.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 10 Feb. 2026
But the bad news is that outside of a mutual prisoner exchange, both sides walked away muttering the same old positions.
—Daniel Depetris, Chicago Tribune, 10 Feb. 2026
In the coming days, Venezuela's president is expected to sign a sweeping amnesty law that could secure freedom for hundreds more prisoners still behind bars — a move that has advanced quickly through the National Assembly and is being billed as a step toward national reconciliation.
—Manuel Rueda, NPR, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for prisoner
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Ashley Carnahan, FOXNews.com, 11 Feb. 2026
The film centers on inmates at an Indonesian correctional facility whose fragile power structures fracture when a new prisoner arrives with a vengeful supernatural entity that hunts those with the darkest aura.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 10 Feb. 2026
But the bad news is that outside of a mutual prisoner exchange, both sides walked away muttering the same old positions.
—Daniel Depetris, Chicago Tribune, 10 Feb. 2026
In the coming days, Venezuela's president is expected to sign a sweeping amnesty law that could secure freedom for hundreds more prisoners still behind bars — a move that has advanced quickly through the National Assembly and is being billed as a step toward national reconciliation.
—Manuel Rueda, NPR, 10 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for prisoner
Cite this Entry
“Prisoner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prisoner. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
prisoner
noun
pris·on·er
ˈpriz-nər 
-ᵊn-ər
: a person who has been captured or locked up
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