noun

imprisonment

im-PRIZ-un-munt/ɪmˈprɪznmənt/

The act or state of being confined or deprived of freedom.

The locked cell shows her imprisonment.

A middle-aged East Asian woman sits on a plain bunk inside a locked modern jail cell, with the closed barred door clearly establishing confinement.

Etymology

imLatinin, into

+prisonOld Frenchprison

+mentOld Frenchaction or state

The pieces describe putting someone in prison and the resulting state. The noun names that condition of confinement, whether in a jail or another place of captivity.

In context

TED1:02

And that took me to prison. I spent the next seven years in imprisonment, four of them in solitary confinement in a military prison.

How to Defend Democracy — and Fight Autocracy | Leopoldo Lopez | TED

More examples

The memoir described years of imprisonment.
They protested the imprisonment.
He feared renewed imprisonment.

Forms

imprisonment

imprison verb — confine or deprive of freedom

Similar words

confinement: Being kept within limits, not necessarily prison.
incarceration: A formal synonym for imprisonment.