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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.
Examples of incarcerate in a Sentence
New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 5 Apr. 2025
Baseball was a way of life in the camps that incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II.
—Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Apr. 2025
The home is part of A New Way of Life’s SAFE Housing Network, a national collective providing safe reentry housing to formerly incarcerated people, and will welcome up to four women at a time, according to local outlet The Atlanta Voice.
—Abby Monteil, Them., 1 Apr. 2025
Wooton has been incarcerated since November 2023 after receiving a nearly two-year prison sentence on a theft by swindle conviction in Wright County for conning a Clearwater man into giving him $10,000 in 2019 for the purchase of a motorhome that didn’t exist.
—Nick Ferraro, Twin Cities, 1 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for incarcerate
Cite this Entry
“Incarcerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarcerate. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
incarcerate
verb
Legal Definition
incarcerate
transitive verb
Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare, from in- in + carcer prison
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