Did you know?
Just as English is full of nouns referring to places where prisoners are confined, from the familiar (jail and prison) to the obscure (calaboose and bridewell), so we have multiple verbs for the action of putting people behind bars. Some words can be used as both nouns and verbs, if in slightly different forms: one can be jailed in a jail, imprisoned in a prison, locked up in a lockup, or even jugged in a jug. Incarcerate does not have such a noun equivalent in English—incarceration refers to the state of confinement rather than a physical structure—but it comes ultimately from the Latin noun carcer, meaning “prison.” Incarcerate is also on the formal end of the spectrum when it comes to words related to the law and criminal justice, meaning you are more likely to read or hear about someone incarcerated in a penitentiary or detention center than in the pokey or hoosegow.
Examples of incarcerate in a Sentence
Chicago Tribune, 7 Jan. 2026
Prince was incarcerated at the Westmoreland County Prison for those crimes, but posted the bail in December.
—Christopher Derose, CBS News, 7 Jan. 2026
Yamate, chair of the Los Gatos Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, recounted that his mother, Kikuye Inouye, was incarcerated for three years at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
—Nollyanne Delacruz, Mercury News, 7 Jan. 2026
He has never been incarcerated; he has never even been arrested.
—Demetrius Patterson, HollywoodReporter, 5 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for incarcerate
Cite this Entry
“Incarcerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarcerate. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
incarcerate
verb
Legal Definition
incarcerate
transitive verb
Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare, from in- in + carcer prison
Share