encampment

/ɛnˈkæmpmənt/

Other forms: encampments

An encampment is a temporary area made up of tents or other makeshift shelters set up by campers, soldiers, or people without permanent homes.

An encampment can provide shelter, community, and a base of operations, whether for recreation, protest, or military purposes. Encampments may pop up when people are displaced by war, natural disasters, or other hardships. Sometimes people create an encampment at a music festival or during a protest so that there is a place to stay and rest without having to leave the area.

Definitions of encampment

1. noun

   temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers
   synonyms: bivouac, camp, cantonment

   types:

   boot camp

   camp for training military recruits

   hutment

   an encampment of huts (chiefly military)

   laager, lager

   a camp defended by a circular formation of wagons

   type of:

   military quarters

   living quarters for personnel on a military post
2. noun

   a site where people can pitch a tent
   synonyms: bivouac, campground, camping area, camping ground, camping site, campsite

   type of:

   land site, site

   the piece of land on which something is located (or is to be located)
3. noun

   the act or practice of living in temporary shelters outdoors
   synonyms: bivouacking, camping, tenting

   type of:

   habitation, inhabitancy, inhabitation

   the act of dwelling in or living permanently in a place (said of both animals and men)