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prison camp

prison camp

26 5.3
A camp where guards keep people against their will, often during war
  • noun
  • /ˈprɪzən kæmp/
translation icon : campo de prisioneros
  • "I was in a prison camp, not any place to get souvenirs."
  • North Korean prison camp

Ship me off to North Florida, went to federal prison camp.

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Examples

  • Solzhenitsyn spent most of his life in a prison camp, enduring terrible punishment, starvation, dire and brutal beatings.

  • Some were simply murdered, many more were arrested and placed into prison camps where many died.

    Blog text (4)
  • And a year in the prison camp.

  • Only this time you wind up in a Japanese prison camp.

  • I spent ten months in a German prison camp with nothing to stop the pain.

  • Harry was in the army for four years, and three of 'em were spent in a Japanese prison camp!

  • Anyhow, I was in a German prison camp for the better part of a year.

  • The British commander of Singapore has just been released from a prison camp.

  • But I was soon caught by the Russian soldiers and taken to a prison camp in Siberia.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • After being captured, he spent five years in a prison camp where conditions were extremely harsh.

Synonyms

prison
vsprison camp
223 5.6

A place or situation that makes someone feel trapped

is the literal guarded wartime holding place rather than a metaphorical state
brig
vsprison camp
  • Jargon
64 8.6

A prison on a ship or at a navy base

is land wartime guarded holding rather than a naval or shipboard site
concentration camp
vsprison camp
  • Offensive
49 5.6

A place where many people are imprisoned without trial in harsh, crowded conditions

is used for guarded wartime holding but not always mass persecution
jailhouse
vsprison camp
42 4.1

A building where police keep people who are waiting for trial or serving a sentence

is usually a guarded wartime site rather than a general custody building
detention centre
vsprison camp
  • UK
36 4.6

A place where people are kept for a short time, like prisoners or migrants, while their case is decided

is used for wartime guarded holding, not only temporary administrative holding
gulag
vsprison camp
23 9.9

A system of prison camps in the Soviet Union that held people who opposed the government

shares guarded confinement but is specific to a political historical system
labor camp
vsprison camp
  • US
19 7.5

A prison where people are forced to work, often for political reasons

can include work but emphasizes guarded wartime holding rather than labor focus
juvenile detention
vsprison camp
15 6.3

A locked place where young people who break the law are kept

is broader wartime guarded holding rather than youth correction focus
internment camp
vsprison camp
10 7.6

A place where people are held under guard during war or for political reasons

focuses on guarded wartime holding rather than exile or long isolation
correctional facility
vsprison camp
  • Formal
10 4.2

A building like a prison where people are kept as punishment and given training

is the wartime guarded holding context rather than a general rehabilitation site
stockade
vsprison camp
7 8.3

A guarded camp where prisoners are kept in harsh conditions

is similar but does not require extreme harshness or mass confinement
penal colony
vsprison camp
7 8.2

A place, often on an island, where the government keeps people sent there for crimes and they cannot leave

is mainly about guarded wartime holding rather than long exile
work camp
vsprison camp
6 7.0

A camp where prisoners must do hard physical work

is broader, stressing guarded wartime holding rather than obligatory work
POW camp
vsprison camp
5 4.3

A camp that holds soldiers captured during a war

is the general guarded wartime site for detained people rather than only soldiers
prisoner of war camp
vsprison camp
4 3.2

A place that holds soldiers captured by the enemy during a war

is used more broadly for guarded wartime confinement not only for combatants
reeducation camp
vsprison camp
  • Offensive
2 9.9

A place where a government holds people and forces them to change their beliefs

is a guarded wartime holding place that may not aim to change beliefs
correctional institution
vsprison camp
  • Formal
2 4.9

A place where people who broke the law are kept as punishment or while they wait for trial

is narrower, focusing on wartime guarded sites rather than general corrections
prison farm
vsprison camp
1 6.8

A place in the countryside where people who broke the law live and work on farms

is more about guarded wartime holding than a work or rural program
house of detention
vsprison camp
  • Formal
1 7.7

A place where young people who broke the law are kept by the court for a short time

is about guarded wartime holding, while this is mainly temporary court custody
detention camp
vsprison camp
  • US
1 6.2

A place where young people who broke the law stay temporarily under court care

is about guarded wartime holding, not specifically for young offenders
rehabilitation camp
vsprison camp
  • Offensive
8.4

A place where people are kept by the government and forced to change their beliefs or behavior

is about guarded wartime confinement rather than enforced rehabilitation

How Restricted

supermax
  • Specialized
12 7.9
prison camp
26 5.3
detention centre
  • UK
36 4.6
holding cell
33 4.1

Surface Forms

prison camp singular
prison camps plural

Morphology

prison + camp

The meaning 'a camp where prisoners are kept' is directly and transparently built from combining 'prison' (an institution housing punished people) and 'camp' (a site with temporary shelters). This regular noun+noun composition is common cross-linguistically and follows predictable English compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Prison camp comes from places used in war where captured people were held in tents or fenced areas under guard. The image of a guarded camp acting as a prison explains why it means 'a camp where prisoners are kept'.