concentration camp

noun

Synonyms of concentration campnext
: 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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Disputes over Israel recently erupted at the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial, as both Israel’s critics and its defenders claim the Holocaust for their terrain. Shira Li Bartov, Sun Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2026 Stop the warehouse conversions to concentration camps. Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 4 Mar. 2026 Britain was being relentlessly bombed by the Luftwaffe, Germany had invaded France, Belgium, and Holland, and the concentration camp at Auschwitz had opened. Literary Hub, 27 Feb. 2026 Max Silnicki, who runs the Washington Avenue Barber Shop, shaved the heads of 10,000 Jews in Nazi concentration camps before they were cremated. Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for concentration camp

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of concentration camp was in 1901

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Cite this Entry

“Concentration camp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concentration%20camp. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.

Kids Definition

concentration camp

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

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