Standard Lemma guide

carceral

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɑːsəɹəl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɑːsɹl̩/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈkɑɹsəɹəl/
  • General-American: /ˈkɑɹsɹl̩/

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, literary, not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Late Latin carcerālis (“carceral”), from Latin carcer (“jail, prison”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, turn, in the sense of an enclosure”)) + -ālis (suffix forming relational adjectives).

Across languages

Translations

22 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سِجْنِيّ (sijniyy) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Belarusian: турэ́мны (turémny) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Belarusian: цямні́чны (cjamníčny) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Belarusian: астро́жны (astróžny) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Bulgarian: затво́рнически (zatvórničeski) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Catalan: carcerari — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Chinese Mandarin: 監獄的 /监狱的 (jiānyù de) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Czech: vězeňský — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Danish: fængsels- — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Estonian: vanglalik — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Finnish: vankila- — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • French: carcéral — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • German: Gefängnis- — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Hungarian: börtön- — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Ido: karcerala — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Latin: carcerālis — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Polish: więzienny — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Russian: тюре́мный (tjurémnyj) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Slovak: väzenský — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Spanish: carcelario — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Ukrainian: в'язни́чний (vʺjaznýčnyj) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison
  • Ukrainian: тюре́мний (tjurémnyj) — of or pertaining to imprisonment or a prison