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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.
Synonyms
Examples of incarcerate in a Sentence
Erik Pedersen, Orange County Register, 15 Nov. 2024
Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested and incarcerated each year for selling and dispensing marijuana, with the harms falling disproportionately on Black people.
—Marin Cogan, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
The program comes at a time when national data reveals that formerly incarcerated people have an unemployed rate of more than 27%.
—Stephanie Lam, The Mercury News, 4 Nov. 2024
Manzanar was one of 10 camps where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans — the vast majority of them U.S. citizens born and raised in this country — were incarcerated during World War II.
—Hunter Clauss, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for incarcerate 
Dictionary Entries Near incarcerate
Cite this Entry
“Incarcerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incarcerate. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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incarcerate
verb
Legal Definition
incarcerate
transitive verb
Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare, from in- in + carcer prison
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