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

 

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)
• Hungarian: szabadságvesztés (hu)
• Indonesian: hukuman penjara (id)
• Irish: gabhann m, príosún (ga) m, príosúnacht f, príosúnú m, braighdeanas m
• Italian: detenzione (it) f, incarcerazione (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)
• 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
• 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