internment

noun

in·​tern·​ment in-ˈtərn-mənt 

ˈin-ˌtərn-

plural internments

: the act of interning someone or the state of being interned

His parents had never told him about the exclusion laws, or the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the subject had not come up in his textbooks.

—Timothy Egan

Even in the midst of betrayal and the resulting alienation experienced in the internment, there exists the unnegotiable state of human bonds and possibility for reconciliation.

—Fumitaka Matsuoka

… an American who spent World War II with his parents in an internment camp.

—Philip Siekman

Synonyms

• captivity
• confinement
• immurement
• impoundment
• imprisonment
• incarceration
• prison

Examples of internment in a Sentence

the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II is one of the more shameful chapters in United States history

Recent Examples on the Web

Later, Takei's family was shipped by train to an internment camp in Arkansas, one of 10 such camps in the U.S. —Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, 3 Nov. 2024

Detention centers and processing camps would need to be established nationwide, potentially creating scenes reminiscent of America's internment camps during World War II. —Andy J. Semotiuk, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024

To Shibutani, who had spent the war imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in California, rumor was more of a verb than a noun, a collective process of making sense of the world. —science.org, 30 Oct. 2024

The exhibit also covers the internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. during World War II. —Tasha Tsiaperas, Axios, 24 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

internment

noun

in·​tern·​ment

in-ˈtərn-mənt,

ˈin-ˌtərn-

: the act of interning : the state of being interned