You searched for: “prison”
jail, gaol; prison, penitentiary
jail (JAYL); British, gaol (JAYL) (noun)
1. A place for the confinement of people in lawful detention; especially, those who are awaiting trial under local jurisdiction: Jeremy was locked up in the county jail for driving while drunk.

Mildred was arrested for drunkenness and spent a night in the city jail.

2. A short-term detaining facility for those awaiting trial or for those convicted of minor offences: Aaron was kept in the city jail while he was being tried for murder and, if convicted, he would be sent to the state prison.
prison; penitentiary (PRIZ uhn; pen" i TEN shuh ree) (noun)
A long-term detention facility for those convicted of major, or more serious crimes: After spending six months in the city jail during his trial, Carlos was then sentenced to life in the state prison.

Trina was sentenced to forty years in a federal penitentiary for the crime that she committed.

In British English, there is no clear difference between jail and prison, and the word penitentiary is apparently not used in Great Britain.

The alleged criminal was held in the local jail which his British lawyer always referred to as the local gaol while his client was awaiting his trial.

When he was found guilty and sentenced, Adam was sent to the state penitentiary which his lawyer referred to as a prison.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group J; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 1)
prison (s) (noun), prisons (pl)
1. A building into which people are legally committed as a punishment for a crime or while awaiting trial: A large prison is called a "penitentiary" and the people who are kept there are called "prisoners".
2. Etymology: just like prehensile, comprehend, comprehensible, etc., prison essentially comes from Latin prehendere, "to seize".

From this origin, the noun prehensio, "seizure", was contracted to prensio, which in Old French was presented as prisun.

At that time, it came to be used specifically for "imprisonment" and then it became the "place of imprisonment" or a "prison".

This entry is located in the following unit: prehend-, prehens- (page 3)
More possibly related word entries
Units related to: “prison”
carcer-, carcera-
(Latin: prison, jail; an enclosed place)
cav-, cavo-, cava-, cavi-, cavern-
(Latin: hollow, a hollow place; chasm; prison)
Word Entries containing the term: “prison”
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
This entry is located in the following unit: paraprosdokian, paraprosdokia (page 1)
Condescending is a convict escaping down the wall of a prison using a rope.
This entry is located in the following unit: paraprosdokian, paraprosdokia (page 2)
When someone is in prison, what is his or her favorite punctuation mark?

A period, because it is at the end of a sentence.

This entry is located in the following unit: paraprosdokian, paraprosdokia (page 7)