Carceral

WORD OF THE DAY

carceral / adjective / KAHR-suh-rul

Definition
1: of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

Examples
"Coordinate care inside and outside carceral settings."
— Bill Frist, Forbes, 15 June 2022

Pointing to the expanding gulf between wages and rent and real estate’s tightening grip on the state, the group demands that the city’s new, nearly $1 billion homelessness budget serve a whole new system rather than a carceral fix.
— Tracy Rosenthal, The New Republic, 19 May 2022

Did You Know?
Carceral is a member of a small but imposing family: like its close relations incarcerate (meaning "to imprison") and incarceration (meaning "confinement in a jail or prison"), its ultimate source is the Latin word for "prison," carcer.
All three words have been in use since the 16th century, and all three are more common today than they were a century ago.
Carceral has always been the rarest of the group, but its use has increased significantly since the turn of the current century, most often within academic or legal contexts.