internment

noun

in·​tern·​ment in-ˈtərn-mənt 

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

Synonyms of internment

• captivity
• incarceration
• imprisonment
• confinement
• prison

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

Adding to the dark absurdity of the situation was the fact that Seghers’s husband, the Hungarian Marxist scholar László Radványi, was being held in a French internment camp, on the basis that Hungary was a German ally. — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026

At the exhibition’s press opening, curator Cindy Kang talked about trying to dispel the idea that internment was an isolated incident that these artists then moved on from. — Robert Sullivan, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2026

Even local landmarks can have a part in shameful history, with de Courcy noting that Memorial Auditorium was a staging area for the shipment of Japanese American residents to internment camps for during World War II. — Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 5 Oct. 2026

Council President Diana Romero-Campbell had asked whether the labor of other groups, such as migrant workers and people detained in Japanese internment camps, could also be included in the script. — Elliott Wenzler, Denver Post, 29 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for internment

• adjournment
• attornment
• concernment
• discernment

Kids Definition

internment

noun

in·​tern·​ment

in-ˈtərn-mənt, 

ˈin-ˌtərn-

: the act of interning : the state of being interned