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Carceral is a member of a small but imposing family: like its close relations incarcerate (meaning "to imprison") and incarceration (meaning "confinement in a jail or prison"), its ultimate source is the Latin word for "prison," carcer. All three words have been in use since the 16th century, and all three are more common today than they were a century ago. Carceral has always been the rarest of the group, but its use has increased significantly since the turn of the current century, most often within academic or legal contexts.
Examples of carceral in a Sentence
Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2024
My fellow West Coast native is one of the carceral state’s most important critics.
—Mitchell S. Jackson, TIME, 2 Oct. 2024
With Orange Is the New Black, Kohan reshaped a middle-class white writer’s prison memoir into a dark yet vibrant ensemble dramedy of carceral injustice starring the Black and brown women disproportionately ensnared in that system.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 25 July 2024
If a fair system of payment for carceral employment were put in place, this viewpoint might be borne out.
—Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near carceral
Cite this Entry
“Carceral.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carceral. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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