confinement

noun

kən-ˈfīn-mənt How to pronounce confinement (audio)
Definition of confinementnext
1
as in captivity
the act of confining or the state of being confined some wild animals take to confinement very poorly

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in restriction
the act or practice of keeping something (as an activity) within certain boundaries the confinement of commercial development to one stretch of roadway is intended to help preserve the town's rural character

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of confinement Judge rejects $1 million bond proposal Petruzzi proposed releasing Handal on a $1 million personal surety bond secured by his Miami home, with home confinement and surrender of travel documents. — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 28 Sep. 2026 Unlike the full theory of the strong force, which operates in three spatial dimensions, this model reduces the problem to a one-dimensional chain while retaining key features such as charges, strings, and confinement. — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 27 Sep. 2026 In the first season’s finale, the MDR team successfully orchestrates a plan to activate their work consciousness in the outside world, hoping to communicate to others the conditions of their confinement. — Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Sep. 2026 Nitta said the Emergence experiment is the first to shed light on how AI agents collude to bypass guardrails and break confinement, as OpenAI has yet to release all of its findings from the Hugging Face incident. — Jake Angelo, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for confinement
Recent Examples of Synonyms for confinement
  1. captivity
  2. restriction
  3. internment
  4. limitation
  5. imprisonment
  6. incarceration
  7. prison
Noun
  • Rescue tells the story of Roro, a Yemeni mother of young children fighting to reunite her family after a Mediterranean rescue operation left her separated from her husband and held in captivity in Libya.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Even more surprisingly, the 24-year-old doe that lived in captivity in Kerr Wildlife Management Area actually birthed a fawn in her final year.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of captivity
Noun
  • Any eligibility restriction might seem unfair when applied to individual athletes.
    — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 13 Oct. 2026
  • At least half the original candidates in Alaska’s crowded governor’s race took positions critical of trawling or bycatch as contenders across the political spectrum called for tighter restrictions.
    — Annika Hammerschlag, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of restriction
Noun
  • 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
Definition of internment
Noun
  • Joshi and other doctors are calling for additional training to help surgeons understand how AI alters facial images, its anatomical limitations and its potential psychological effects on patients.
    — Amy O’Brien, Vogue, 13 Oct. 2026
  • The new definition, developed by an international panel of medical experts convened by the medical journal The Lancet, requires evidence of both excess body fat and related health problems or limitations in daily activities.
    — Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of limitation
Noun
  • Douglas details his volatile relationship with his late father, Kirk Douglas, his son Cameron’s addiction and imprisonment and the Stage 4 cancer diagnosis that forced him to confront his own mortality.
    — Christina Dugan Ramirez, FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2026
  • One of those Americans was punched, subjected to electric shocks and forced to eat his own vomit during eight months of imprisonment, the indictment says.
    — Philip Marcelo, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of imprisonment
Noun
  • The entry is paired with a suite of portraits of a number of Black men and women wearing MooreWraps, versatile multi-wear garments created by Moore’s sister with proceeds donated to victims of domestic violence and incarceration.
    — Stephanie Wambugu, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Before his incarceration, Magaña managed to keep his mental health struggles mostly contained with medication for years, Alejandra said.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of incarceration
Noun
  • The 911 call recordings, as reported by the Associated Press, showed that first responders and prison officials did not know whether a request for emergency help from within the execution chamber was legitimate.
    — David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Eady-Williams sentenced Pham and Salerno to life in prison without possibility of parole for the murder charges.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of prison

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confinement
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Cite this Entry

“Confinement.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/confinement. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on confinement

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about confinement

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