incarcerate

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

US /ɪnˈkɑrsəreɪt/ UK /ɪnˈkɑːsəreɪt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to confine or imprison someone

The court chose to incarcerate the offender for five years.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to confine or imprison someone imprison jail confine detain intern immure

Opposites

release free liberate discharge

Word family

Derived forms incarcerationincarcerator

Related forms carceral

Simplified etymology

Incarcerate comes from medieval Latin incarcerare, meaning “to imprison,” based on Latin carcer, “prison.”

Etymology

From Medieval Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare ('to imprison'), from in- ('in') + carcer ('prison, enclosure').

incarcerare Medieval Latin carcer Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# incarcerate

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ɪnˈkɑrsəreɪt/
**IPA (UK):** /ɪnˈkɑːsəreɪt/

## Meanings
1. to confine or imprison someone

## Examples
- The court chose to incarcerate the offender for five years.

## Synonyms
- imprison
- jail
- confine
- detain
- intern
- immure

## Antonyms
- release
- free
- liberate
- discharge

## Derived Forms
- incarceration
- incarcerator

## Related Forms
- carceral

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: incarcerare
- Root: carcer

## Etymology
From Medieval Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare ('to imprison'), from in- ('in') + carcer ('prison, enclosure').

## AI Etymology
incarcerate comes from Medieval Latin incarceratus, past participle of incarcerare ('to imprison'), from in- ('in') + carcer ('prison, enclosure'). Morphologically, the prefixed shape matters: the initial element belongs to the recorded formation and helps explain the modern form's surface analysis. In present English, the verb sense is "to confine or imprison someone", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as carceral, and in derivatives such as incarceration and incarcerator. Its semantic neighborhood includes imprison, jail, confine, and detain, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Medieval Latin incarcerare and Latin carcer.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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