concentration camp

noun

: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard

—used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners

The Nazi soldiers hauled [Mordechai] Strigler off to a concentration camp, and carved swastikas into his cheeks and forehead with a razor blade. Over the next five years, he was sent from one concentration camp or slave-labor camp to another.

—David Remnick

She ended up dying in a concentration camp, just a few months before she would have been liberated.

—Marilyn Reynolds

The V2 killed thousands of British civilians while 20,000 concentration camp inmates died as slave labourers during its manufacture in the closing stages of the second world war.

—Anna Tomforde et al.

see also death camp

Examples of concentration camp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Outside of learning about ancient concentration camps and historic serial killers while Phaedra beams, the moment without Porsha serves as a Hail Mary pass for Shamea to try to salvage some of the damage from the night before. — Ile-Ife Okantah, Vulture, 20 July 2026

Her parents arrived in America with her older sister in 1947 after getting liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp and losing most of their family in the Holocaust. — Michelle L. Quinn, Chicago Tribune, 11 July 2026

Maryland is home to a large Jewish community, many of whom had significant numbers of relatives who were butchered by the SS in concentration camps. — Bobby Zirkin, Baltimore Sun, 9 July 2026

Published after her death at age 15 in a concentration camp, the diary became a classic of Holocaust literature and remains widely read. — Frank Digiacomo, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for concentration camp

• amp
• champ
• clamp
• cramp
• damp
• gamp
• lamp
• ramp
• samp
• scamp
• stamp
• tamp

Kids Definition

concentration camp

noun

: a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained