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

the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II is one of the more shameful chapters in United States history
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.
The many thousands of Palestinians (including children) held hostage in Israeli jails and internment camps are, of course, not a consideration whatsoever. Jack Sheehan september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025 In the northwestern province of Xinjiang, for instance, Beijing has refused to engage moderate voices and has relied on direct repression, including sending a large swath of the population to internment camps, to erase local culture and silence dissent among Uyghurs. Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2025 Site of World War II internment camp to be used to detain immigrants. Rebecca Morin, USA Today, 26 Aug. 2025 In a presentation given in 2019 and preserved in transcript on the National Park Service website, Rakoczy named Fort Bliss alongside Crystal City, Seagoville, Kenedy and Dodd Field as the sites for internment camps. Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for internment

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of internment was in 1850

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Cite this Entry

“Internment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internment. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

Kids Definition

internment

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

More from Merriam-Webster on internment

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