captivity

English

Etymology

From Middle English captivite, from Latin captīvitās. By surface analysis, captive +‎ -ity. Entered into the English lexicon around the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kæpˈtɪvɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cap‧tiv‧i‧ty

Noun

captivity (countable and uncountable, plural captivities)

1. The state of being captive.

   held in captivity

   escape from captivity

   The animals lived in captivity at the zoo.

   He wrote a memoir about his years in captivity.

2. (obsolete) A group of people/beings captive.
3. The state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved.

   long captivity

Derived terms

• anticaptivity
• precaptivity
• semicaptivity

Translations

state of being captive

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Altai:

  Southern Altai: олјо (olǰo)

• Arabic: أَسْر m (ʔasr), سَبْي m (saby)
• Armenian: գերություն (hy) (gerutʻyun)
• Belarusian: пало́н m (palón), няво́ля f (njavólja)
• Bulgarian: плен (bg) m (plen)
• Catalan: captivitat f, captiveri m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 囚禁 (zh) (qiújìn), 關押 / 关押 (zh) (guānyā), 拘禁 (zh) (jūjìn), 拘押 (zh) (jūyā), 監禁 / 监禁 (zh) (jiānjìn), 樊籠 / 樊笼 (zh) (fánlóng), 桎梏 (zh) (zhìgù), 囹圄 (zh) (língyǔ)

• Czech: zajetí (cs) n
• Dutch: gevangenschap (nl) f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vankeus (fi)
• French: captivité (fr) f
• Galician: catividade (gl) f, cativerio (gl) m
• Georgian: ტყვეობა (ṭq̇veoba), მონობა (monoba)
• German: Gefangenschaft (de) f
• Greek: αιχμαλωσία (el) f (aichmalosía)

  Ancient Greek: αἰχμαλωσία f (aikhmalōsía)

• Hebrew: שֶׁבִי (he) m (shévi), שִׁבְיָה f (shivyá)
• Hungarian: fogság (hu)
• Irish: broid f
• Italian: cattività (it) f
• Japanese: 監禁 (ja) (かんきん, kankin)
• Korean: 감금 (ko) (gamgeum)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: دیلی (dîlî)

• Latgalian: navaļa, vaņgeiba
• Latin: captīvitās f
• Latvian: gūsts
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: заробеништво n (zarobeništvo), пленство n (plenstvo)
• Māori: whakarau
• Persian: اسارت (fa) (esârat)
• Polish: niewola (pl) f
• Portuguese: catividade f
• Romanian: captivitate (ro) f
• Russian: плен (ru) m (plen), нево́ля (ru) f (nevólja), поло́н (ru) m (polón) (archaic or poetic)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: заробљени́штво n

  Latin: zarobljeníštvo (sh) n

• Shor: олча (olča)
• Slovak: zajatie n
• Slovene: ujetništvo (sl) n
• Spanish: cautividad (es) f, cautiverio (es) m, captiverio m, captividad f
• Swedish: fångenskap (sv) c
• Turkish: esaret (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: اسیرلك (esirlik)

• Ukrainian: поло́н m (polón), нево́ля f (nevólja)
• Vietnamese: tù binh (vi)
• Welsh: caethiwed (cy)

captives — see captive

period of being captive

• Czech: zajetí (cs) n
• Finnish: vankeus (fi), vankeusaika
• German: Gefangenschaft (de) f
• Portuguese: cativeiro (pt) m
• Russian: нево́ля (ru) f (nevólja), плен (ru) m (plen)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: заробљени́штво n

  Latin: zarobljeníštvo (sh) n

• Swedish: fångenskap (sv) c

See also

• captive
• captor