imprisonment

English

Alternative forms

• emprisonment (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprisonement, from Old French emprisonnement. See imprison +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹɪzn̩.mənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

imprisonment (countable and uncountable, plural imprisonments)

1. A confinement in a place, especially a prison or a jail, especially as punishment for a crime.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2:

     His sinews woxen weake and raw / Through long emprisonment and hard constraint.

   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     Every confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or in a private house, or even by forcibly detaining one in the public streets.

   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]

Synonyms

• incarceration
• jaildom

Derived terms

• false imprisonment
• imprisonment warrant
• life imprisonment
• overimprisonment
• reimprisonment

Translations

confinement

Arabic: حَبْس (ar) m (ḥabs), سَجْن (ar) m (sajn) Aragonese: please add this translation if you can Armenian: բանտարկություն (hy) (bantarkutʻyun) Aromanian: please add this translation if you can Asturian: encarcelamientu m Azerbaijani: azadlıqdan məhrumetmə Belarusian: зняво́ленне n (znjavóljennje), пазбаўле́нне во́лі n (pazbaŭljénnje vóli) Bulgarian: затваряне n (zatvarjane) Catalan: empresonament (ca) m Cherokee: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 徒刑 (zh) (túxíng), 下獄 / 下狱 (zh) (xiàyù) Czech: uvěznění n Danish: fangenskab (da) n Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can Dutch: gevangenschap (nl) n Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: vangistus (et) Faroese: fangilsi n Finnish: vankeus (fi) French: emprisonnement (fr) m Galician: encarceramento (gl) m Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Gefangenschaft (de) f, Haft (de) f Greek: φυλάκιση (el) f (fylákisi), κάθειρξη (el) f (kátheirxi) (law, more than five years) Hindi: कारावास (hi) m (kārāvās) Hungarian: szabadságvesztés (hu), bebörtönzés (hu) Indonesian: hukuman penjara (id) Irish: gabhann m, príosún (ga) m, príosúnacht f, príosúnú m, braighdeanas m Italian: detenzione (it) f, incarcerazione (it) f, carcerazione (it) f Japanese: 徒刑 (ja) (とけい, tokei), 懲役 (ja) (ちょうえき, chōeki), 投獄 (ja) (とうごく, tōgoku), 拘禁刑 (kōkinkei) Khmer: ការដាក់គុក (kaa dak kuk) Korean: 투옥(投獄) (ko) (tuok), 도형 (ko) (dohyeong) Macedonian: заробеништво n (zarobeništvo), затворање n (zatvoranje) Malayalam: തടവ് (ml) (taṭavŭ) Maori: mauheretanga Mirandese: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: fengsling (no) m or f Nynorsk: fengsling f Occitan: encarceracion (oc) f Oromo: hidhaa Polish: uwięzienie (pl) n, osądzenie (pl) n, pozbawienie wolności (pl) n Portuguese: aprisionamento m Romanian: întemnițare (ro), încarcerare (ro) Russian: (тюре́мное) заключе́ние n ((tjurémnoje) zaključénije), лише́ние свобо́ды (ru) n (lišénije svobódy), заточе́ние (ru) n (zatočénije) Scottish Gaelic: ciomachas m Slovak: väznenie n, uväznenie n Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: popajź f Spanish: encarcelamiento (es) m, encarcelación (es) f, aprisionamiento m, cautiverio (es) m, cautividad (es) f Swedish: fångenskap (sv) c Thai: จำคุก (jam-kúk) Turkish: hapsetme (tr) Ukrainian: ув'я́знення n (uvʺjáznennja), позба́влення во́лі n (pozbávlennja vóli) Vietnamese: phạt tù Volapük: fanäböpam, fanäbam (vo) Walloon: please add this translation if you can Welsh: carchariad (cy) m Yiddish: please add this translation if you can