prisoner

prisoner — noun

1. someone confined to a prison as punishment for breaking the law, or held there w

1.nounB1
Definition

someone confined to a prison as punishment for breaking the law, or held there while awaiting trial

Example

The prisoner asked the guard for permission to call her lawyer.

collocation: ask the guard / call a lawyer

Kwame spent three years as a prisoner before the court found him innocent.

collocation: find someone innocent

Common collocations
  • release a prisoner
  • sentence a prisoner
  • guard a prisoner
  • political prisoner
  • model prisoner
  • fellow prisoner
  • escaped prisoner
  • prisoner on remand
Synonyms
  • inmate

    more neutral and formal; focuses on the person living in an institution rather than the legal status

  • convict

    specifically someone who has been found guilty by a court; carries a stronger criminal-judgment connotation

  • detainee

    someone held temporarily, often while awaiting trial or processing; does not imply guilt

Antonyms
  • free person

    someone who is not in custody

  • guard

    a person employed to watch over prisoners, not someone who is confined

Grammar Patterns

prisoner + of + noun phrase

Usage Note

Frequently appears in legal contexts paired with verbs like 'release,' 'sentence,' 'hold,' or 'keep.' Use 'in' to specify the institution (in prison / in a cell), and 'on' to specify the status (on trial / on remand). A prisoner who has been found guilty is also called a convict.

Common Mistakes

The police arrested the prisoner at the crime scene.
The police arrested the suspect at the crime scene.
A prisoner is someone already in prison or in custody; a person arrested at the scene is a suspect until charged.

2. someone taken by enemy forces during a war or conflict and forced to stay in a g

2.nounC2
Definition

someone taken by enemy forces during a war or conflict and forced to stay in a guarded location

Example

The enemy soldiers held the prisoners in a small room with no windows.

collocation: hold a prisoner

Mateo was taken prisoner during the battle and kept in a camp for six months.

fixed expression: taken prisoner

Common collocations
  • take prisoner
  • hold prisoner
  • capture prisoner
  • release prisoner
  • prisoner of war
  • enemy prisoner
  • escaped prisoner
Synonyms
  • captive

    broader term for anyone held against their will, not limited to war or crime

  • hostage

    someone held to force someone else to meet demands; implies a bargaining situation, unlike a prisoner of war

  • POW

    the standard abbreviation for 'prisoner of war'; common in news and historical writing

Antonyms
  • captor

    the person or group holding the prisoner

  • free person

    someone not held against their will

Grammar Patterns

take + someone + prisoner

prisoner of war

Usage Note

The phrase 'take someone prisoner' is a fixed expression meaning to capture someone during a conflict. 'Prisoner of war' (often shortened to POW) is a specific legal status protected by international law. Unlike sense 1, this sense does not imply that the person committed a crime; the capture happens because of armed conflict.

Common Mistakes

He became a prisoner of war during the kidnapping.
He became a prisoner of war during the battle.
Prisoner of war only applies to armed conflict between military forces, not to criminal acts like kidnapping.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Inmate, convict, and detainee all refer to people who are confined, but they differ in legal status and connotation. An inmate is the most neutral term, focusing on the person living inside an institution — it can refer to people in prison, a mental hospital, or a camp. A convict is someone who has been formally found guilty by a court; the word carries a stronger sense of criminal judgment and is therefore less neutral than inmate. A detainee is someone held temporarily, often while waiting for their case to be processed or for deportation, and does not suggest guilt. In legal contexts, use inmate for neutral reference to people serving time, convict to emphasize the guilty verdict, and detainee for pre-trial or immigration detention. For example: 'The inmate wrote a letter to the judge' is neutral; 'The convicted robber was sent to a maximum-security prison' uses convict to highlight the guilty verdict; 'Immigration detainees waited for their hearings in a holding center.'

inmate ↗convict ↗detainee

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • hold someone prisoner
  • take someone prisoner
  • keep someone prisoner

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Prisoner entered English in the 1200s from Old French 'prisonier,' meaning a person held in custody. The French word combines 'prison' (a place of confinement, from Latin 'prensio' meaning a seizure or arrest) with the suffix '-ier' (indicating a person who does or is something). The word originally referred to anyone captured and confined, whether in a formal prison or by an enemy — a dual meaning that the word still carries today.