life imprisonment
15
4.7
- noun
- /laɪf ɪmˈprɪzənmənt/
- Formal
:
cadena perpetua
- Emil Hahn, the tribunal finds you guilty and sentences you to life imprisonment.
- sentenced to life imprisonment
I was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
- I was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
- You better look at these, you know, and he just crumbled, pleaded guilty and got life imprisonment.
- You face a natural life imprisonment without possible parole, OK?
- And if they do, then the maximum sentence in California will be a life imprisonment without parole.
Examples
-
Brian Meehan was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Veronica Guerin, and his assets were seized by the CAB.
-
In a sensational conclusion to the most talked-about case in Australian legal history, Alice Lynne Chamberlain was today found guilty of the murder of her daughter Azaria, and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
-
That calls for life imprisonment.
-
You face a natural life imprisonment without possible parole, OK?
-
The sentence, in the case of all of the accused, is life imprisonment.
-
Where you will serve a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Fiction book (1993) -
At the last minute my sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
-
He has now been sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for the United Kingdom.
-
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and transported to Folsom Prison.
-
The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in the robbery.
Synonyms
∞
9.5
A prison sentence that lasts until a person dies
76
5.7
A prison term that lasts for the rest of a person's life
1
9.9
A prison sentence that keeps a person in prison for life with no chance of release
How Severe
- NSFW
305
4.1
- Formal
15
4.7
19
4.2
108
2.7
321
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'life' specifies the duration of 'imprisonment', so a learner who knows both words can infer 'imprisonment for the rest of one's life'. This modifier + noun pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows standard semantic combination rules, making it easily understandable at B1 level.
Etymology
Life imprisonment comes from the simple image of putting someone in prison for their whole life — the word imprisonment means being kept behind bars — and judges long ago sometimes ordered people to stay in prison until they died. So, the phrase means 'to be kept in prison for the rest of a person's life'.