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
Relevance
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
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 prison
New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro dismissed the charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism shortly after Mangione appeared in court handcuffed and shackled, wearing tan prison garb.
—
Rebecca Morin, USA Today, 16 Sep. 2025
Melissa, who Click 2 Houston reports has three other children, will be admitted to a state mental health facility for the duration of what her prison sentence would have been.
—Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025
That number did not include workers deemed essential such as prison guards, state troopers and Child Protective Services caseworkers.
—Isabella Volmert, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2025
Bell’s 37-month prison sentence is what both the prosecution and defense asked for under the terms of his plea agreement.
—Justin Wingerter, Denver Post, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prison
Rebecca Morin, USA Today, 16 Sep. 2025
Melissa, who Click 2 Houston reports has three other children, will be admitted to a state mental health facility for the duration of what her prison sentence would have been.
—Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025
That number did not include workers deemed essential such as prison guards, state troopers and Child Protective Services caseworkers.
—Isabella Volmert, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2025
Bell’s 37-month prison sentence is what both the prosecution and defense asked for under the terms of his plea agreement.
—Justin Wingerter, Denver Post, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prison
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prison
Noun
-
North Little Rock police officer Tommy Norman, whose social media presence attracted millions of followers before his Saturday arrest on a domestic battery count, was released from jail Monday morning after posting a $350 bond, court records showed.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
15 Sep. 2025
-
Tahoe is obviously getting more aggressive with icon-shape enforcement, up to and including automatically manipulating them and sentencing them to icon jail.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Rescuers are waiting to hear back from wildlife officials on the next steps for the newborns, who may not be able to go into the wild after living in captivity.—
Simone Jasper,
Charlotte Observer,
15 Sep. 2025
-
At his request, his appearance was not announced in advance so the focus could remain on Omer Shem Tov’s spiritual journey during captivity.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
10 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Arcángela and Serafina remain in the women’s penitentiary, continuing to operate illicit businesses and accumulating wealth, but without hope of freedom.—
Isabella Wandermurem,
Time,
10 Sep. 2025
-
Prisoners look out of their cell at maximum security penitentiary CECOT (Center for the Compulsory Housing of Terrorism) on April 4 in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador.—
Dan Gooding,
MSNBC Newsweek,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Ameya sits down with her neighbor's 84-year-old grandmother, who was forced out of California and sent to an internment camp in Wyoming as a young girl.—
Steve Drummond,
NPR,
9 Sep. 2025
-
The worst part of the internment was its indeterminacy.—
Jonathan Blitzer,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Still grieving the death of his wife and the imprisonment of his son, Brandis binges on booze but possesses a sharp and intuitive mind, even if his family life is in disarray.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
12 Sep. 2025
-
The two men care for each other amidst the squalid conditions of their imprisonment in 1970s Argentina.—
Maureen Lee Lenker,
Entertainment Weekly,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Since their incarceration during the Japanese Internment, my grandfather, his sister, and their mother have processed this trauma in ways that have affected my mother and me.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Sep. 2025
-
He was sentenced to four years’ probation and 30 days of shock incarceration.—
Judy L. Thomas,
Kansas City Star,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
He was released to home confinement and his trial was set for June 1, 2026.—
Julia Bonavita , Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
13 Sep. 2025
-
The team managed to achieve a steady-state H-mode plasma at temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), which is a high-confinement regime essential for practical energy input.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Prison.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prison. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share