1
as in jail
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody
the ongoing debate whether drug users should go to prison
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in captivity
the act of confining or the state of being confined
the view that prison does nothing to cure the criminal—if anything, it makes him worse
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of prison
Routh was found guilty last year and sentenced this month to life in prison.
—
Michelle L. Price, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
He was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 22 Feb. 2026
He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.
—Dallas Morning News, 22 Feb. 2026
Although Brashers served two stints in prison in the 1980s and 1990s, Jackson said the man, who died by suicide in 1999, deployed a range of tactics to evade law enforcement.
—Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 21 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for prison
Michelle L. Price, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2026
He was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 22 Feb. 2026
He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.
—Dallas Morning News, 22 Feb. 2026
Although Brashers served two stints in prison in the 1980s and 1990s, Jackson said the man, who died by suicide in 1999, deployed a range of tactics to evade law enforcement.
—Austin Sanders, Austin American Statesman, 21 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for prison
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prison
Noun
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Powell is accused of first-degree murder with a firearm and is being held without bond, according to Broward County jail records.—
Sofia Saric,
Miami Herald,
23 Feb. 2026
-
Myers, 58, was released from jail after posting $100,000 bail, court records show.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
22 Feb. 2026
Noun
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David and Ariel Cunio, who were among the last Israeli hostages to be freed from Gaza after two years of captivity last October, will travel to Berlin next week for a screening of Tom Shoval’s A Letter To David – The Complete Version.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
11 Feb. 2026
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Under the terms of the Dix-Hill agreement, some 30,000 prisoners were returned from captivity by the fall, but the formal exchange arrangement was soon upended.—
Drew Gilpin Faust,
The Atlantic,
8 Feb. 2026
Noun
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He was arrested again in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1961 and spent four months in a penitentiary where fellow Freedom Riders cried out in song each night.—
Veronica Ortega,
CBS News,
17 Feb. 2026
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Azcarate sentenced Magalhaes to 10 years in the penitentiary and two years suspended.—
Mirna Alsharif,
NBC news,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Fewer internment survivors remain each year.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
19 Feb. 2026
-
The core of this CW series is a romance between a human girl, Emery, and an alien boy called Roman who met a decade earlier when the extraterrestrial visitors first crash-landed on Earth and were rounded up and placed in an internment camp.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
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And there was a habeas petition, which is a particular kind of lawsuit that allows somebody to challenge the legality of their imprisonment or other deprivations of liberty.—
Isaac Chotiner,
New Yorker,
19 Feb. 2026
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That imprisonment lasted about a month, before Tanimoto and the others from his block returned to the rest of the internment camp population.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Michelle Parris is the California director at Vera Action, a 501(c)(4) organization harnessing the power of advocacy, lobbying, and political strategy to end mass incarceration, protect immigrants’ rights, restore dignity to people behind bars, and build safe and thriving communities.—
Jose Bernal,
Oc Register,
24 Feb. 2026
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The author argues that San Quentin’s transformation into a rehabilitation center represents a remarkable shift in how society should approach incarceration, given that 95% of incarcerated people are eventually released back into communities.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Tanimoto, as the last living Block 42 resister, carries a singular piece of that history — a controversy and act of resistance within the walls of confinement that illustrated the dilemma faced by people imprisoned by their own country without accusation of a crime.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
19 Feb. 2026
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Welty's death is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against DCS in which family members allege that DCS prematurely closed three of six anonymous complaints brought against Kinsleigh's mother, Toni McClure, who has since been charged with murder and criminal confinement.—
Kayla Dwyer,
IndyStar,
19 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Prison.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prison. Accessed 27 Feb. 2026.
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