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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

incarcerate.

To lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪnˈkɑː.səˌɹeɪt/UK/ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/General-American
  1. To lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.

    US · transitive
  2. To confine; to shut up or enclose; to hem in.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1575; borrowed from Medieval Latin incarcerātus, perfect passive participle of incarcerō (“to imprison”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin in- (“in”) + carcer (“a prison”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

adj/ɪnˈkɑː.səˌɹeɪt/UK/ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/General-American
  1. Incarcerated: jailed, imprisoned, confined, shut in.

    archaic · not-comparable · obsolete
Where this word comes from

The adjective is first attested in 1528, the verb in 1575; borrowed from Medieval Latin incarcerātus, perfect passive participle of incarcerō (“to imprison”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin in- (“in”) + carcer (“a prison”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.