Did you know?
Just as English is full of nouns referring to places where prisoners are confined, from the familiar (jail and prison) to the obscure (calaboose and bridewell), so we have multiple verbs for the action of putting people behind bars. Some words can be used as both nouns and verbs, if in slightly different forms: one can be jailed in a jail, imprisoned in a prison, locked up in a lockup, or even jugged in a jug. Incarcerate does not have such a noun equivalent in English—incarceration refers to the state of confinement rather than a physical structure—but it comes ultimately from the Latin noun carcer, meaning “prison.” Incarcerate is also on the formal end of the spectrum when it comes to words related to the law and criminal justice, meaning you are more likely to read or hear about someone incarcerated in a penitentiary or detention center than in the pokey or hoosegow.
Synonyms
Examples of incarcerate in a Sentence
Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 24 June 2024
Recent studies, including a 2024 report by Northwestern University economist Elisa Jácome and others, found immigrants were consistently less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S.
—Matt Hubbard, Baltimore Sun, 22 June 2024
Peltier, who's 79 and a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe, sits incarcerated at a federal maximum security prison in Coleman, Florida.
—Arlyssa D. Becenti, The Arizona Republic, 19 June 2024
But a circuit court judge in Missouri now says the woman, who suffers from mental illness, should have never been incarcerated – and that a now-deceased local police officer was never properly investigated and should have likely instead been charged with the 1980 killing.
—Emily Palmer, Peoplemag, 17 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for incarcerate 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'incarcerate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near incarcerate
Cite this Entry
“Incarcerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarcerate. Accessed 2 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
incarcerate
verb
Legal Definition
incarcerate
transitive verb
Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare, from in- in + carcer prison
Share