pen ‧ i ‧ ten ‧ tia ‧ ry /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ BrE AmE noun ( plural penitentiaries ) [countable] American English
a prison – used especially in the names of prisons:
the North Carolina state penitentiary
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THESAURUS
▪ prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial:
He was sentenced to five years in prison.
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Wandsworth Prison
▪ jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time:
This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887.
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He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail.
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58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes.
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The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing.
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Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
▪ gaol /dʒeɪl/ British English another way of spelling jail :
He spent the night in gaol.
▪ penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:
the Ohio State Penitentiary
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The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.
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the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
▪ correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison:
1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.
▪ detention centre British English , detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept:
Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life.
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a juvenile detention center
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Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport
▪ open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious:
In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.
▪ cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment:
a prison cell
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Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.