How to Use captivity in a Sentence

captivity

noun

• The prisoners were released from captivity.
• Last week, one of the most storied prisoners died in captivity.
  — Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2022
• The race to free Washington’s last orca in captivity is on the verge of a breakthrough.
  — Laura Blasey, Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 2022
• Mamuka says, at the age of 14, he was captured and held in Russian captivity.
  — ABC News, 13 Mar. 2022
• The hatchling was clearly smaller than those released from captivity, which were usually at least two feet long; the snakes can grow up to eight feet long in adulthood.
  — Zoe Sottile, CNN, 20 Mar. 2022
• That might explain his ambivalence toward his captivity.
  — David Axe, Forbes, 18 Sep. 2024
• Across the country, zoos have been responding to the growing public sentiment that elephants do not belong in captivity.
  — Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2022
• The whales, which ranged in age from 7 to 12 at the time of the transport, were born in captivity, and officials say they cannot safely be released into the ocean.
  — courant.com, 13 Feb. 2022
• Later, she was kidnapped by the English and raped in captivity, according to the Mattaponi tribe's oral history.
  — Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 8 Mar. 2022
• On that day, which would have been his 117th in captivity, Mills heard a noise in the distance that sounded like a tank.
  — al, 24 Apr. 2022
• Freedom is at the heart of this novel, and with that, captivity.
  — Michele Filgate, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2022
• The orca, now believed to be around 57, is the oldest in captivity.
  — Chantal Da Silva, NBC News, 30 Mar. 2023
• This was no solace for Wado, who lived in a cold tent for part of his captivity.
  — John Tamny, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2023
• The species reached a total population — in the wild and in captivity — of about 475 this spring.
  — Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2022
• There are more than 100 hostages still held in captivity.
  — Eric Cortellessa/jerusalem, TIME, 8 Aug. 2024
• Those were older men, and, in this case, this week, younger people, but all of them alive for months in Hamas captivity.
  — CBS News, 1 Sep. 2024
• On the fourth day of her captivity, Kozakiewicz was convinced Tyree would kill her.
  — Diana Pearl, Peoplemag, 5 Sep. 2023
• Gibbons in captivity have hung pieces of rope or blanket on their cages to make swings.
  — National Geographic, 12 Jan. 2023
• To this day, Smart said her parents have not asked her for details about her time in captivity.
  — Analisa Novak, CBS News, 1 June 2022
• The act is named for a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007 and is believed to have died while in captivity.
  — Caitlin Yilek, CBS News, 12 Apr. 2023
• Today, there are more than 500 of these massive birds living in both captivity and the wild.
  — Jake Frederico, The Arizona Republic, 6 Oct. 2022
• On Thursday, the oldest male giant panda in captivity died at the age of 35 in Hong Kong.
  — Juliana Perri, PEOPLE.com, 21 July 2022
• By 1936, the last of these creatures with distinctive tiger-like stripes on their backs died in captivity.
  — Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 22 Aug. 2022
• Green focused on the loss of hostages presumed still to be in the captivity of Hamas, with his son passing out flyers with photos.
  — Rey Covarrubias Jr., The Arizona Republic, 10 May 2024
• An An, the world’s oldest giant male panda in captivity and under human care, has died at the age of 35 in Hong Kong.
  — Byjon Haworth, ABC News, 21 July 2022
• There he will be met by his wife, Stella and their two young sons, who have never known him outside of captivity.
  — Patrick Reevell, ABC News, 25 June 2024
• Among the Kalandars, nearly half the cubs died within a year of captivity.
  — Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023
• On the third day in captivity, a Tuesday, helicopters could be heard overhead and a loud knock came at the door, followed by the sound of a power tool drilling at the lock.
  — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2022
• Gibbons said northern water snakes have been known to live up to nine years in captivity.
  — Don Lyman, BostonGlobe.com, 13 July 2022
• All the dolphins observed for this study are living in captivity.
  — Issy Ronald, CNN, 4 Oct. 2024

Last Updated: 3 Nov 2024