MEANING
To confine someone in a prison or comparable place of detention.
Use it for
Imprisonment, legal coercion, prolonged detention.Name loss of liberty without using decorative language for suffering.
Words that belong together
- incarcerate a prisoner
- incarcerated in a fortress
- wrongfully incarcerated
On the page
The authorities incarcerated him before the witnesses were heard.
She learned where her brother had been incarcerated.
A sealed register listed people incarcerated beneath the fortress.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- incarcerate / incarcerates
- Past tense
- incarcerated
- Past participle
- incarcerated
- Present participle
- incarcerating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- incarcerate / incarcerates
- Present continuous
- am/is/are incarcerating
- Present perfect
- have/has incarcerated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been incarcerating
- Past
- incarcerated
- Past continuous
- was/were incarcerating
- Past perfect
- had incarcerated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been incarcerating
- Future
- will incarcerate / incarcerates
- Future continuous
- will be incarcerating
- Future perfect
- will have incarcerated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been incarcerating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: gothic. Formal; implies deprivation of liberty, not merely residence in an enclosed place. Verb: incarcerate, incarcerates, incarcerated, incarcerated, incarcerating. Derived noun incarceration.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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