internment

/ɪnˈtʌrnmɪnt/

/ɪnˈtʌnmənt/

Other forms: internments

Internment means putting a person in prison or other kind of detention, generally in wartime. During World War II, the American government put Japanese-Americans in internment camps, fearing they might be loyal to Japan.

Internment usually doesn’t involve a trial, so you're being held because someone thinks you might be dangerous, but there’s no proof. The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is now widely considered to have been a terrible mistake, in that the citizens who were detained — some for as long as four years — were not traitors, but loyal Americans, and their internment caused them considerable emotional and economic hardship. Internment comes from the Latin internus, “inward.”

Definitions of internment

1. noun

   the act of confining someone in a prison (or as if in a prison)
   synonyms: imprisonment

   types:

   lockdown

   the act of confining prisoners to their cells (usually to regain control during a riot)

   false imprisonment

   (law) confinement without legal authority

   custody

   holding by the police

   type of:

   confinement

   the act of restraining a person's liberty by confining them
2. noun

   confinement during wartime
   type of:

   captivity, immurement, imprisonment, incarceration

   the state of being imprisoned
3. noun

   placing private property in the custody of an officer of the law
   synonyms: impounding, impoundment, poundage

   types:

   drug bust, drugs bust

   seizure of illegal drugs by the police

   type of:

   seizure

   the taking possession of something by legal process