concentration camp

noun

: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard
used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners
The Nazi soldiers hauled [Mordechai] Strigler off to a concentration camp, and carved swastikas into his cheeks and forehead with a razor blade. Over the next five years, he was sent from one concentration camp or slave-labor camp to another.David Remnick
She ended up dying in a concentration camp, just a few months before she would have been liberated.Marilyn Reynolds
The V2 killed thousands of British civilians while 20,000 concentration camp inmates died as slave labourers during its manufacture in the closing stages of the second world war.Anna Tomforde et al.
see also death camp

Examples of concentration camp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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This week, an Israeli student was arrested at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland for reportedly trying to spoil a class picture with the gesture. Lisa Hagen, NPR, 15 Mar. 2025 Now, the President has shared the thumbnail for a piece which included an image of the Pink Triangle, a symbol directly tied to concentration camps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Newsweek, 13 Mar. 2025 It was used to mark out gay and transgender people in concentration camps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Newsweek, 13 Mar. 2025 Brody’s character in The Brutalist, Toth, is a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp who immigrates to the United States after the war. Jane Levere, Forbes, 3 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for concentration camp

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of concentration camp was in 1901

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Cite this Entry

“Concentration camp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concentration%20camp. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

concentration camp

noun
: a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained

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