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)

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

Derived terms

Translations

state of being captive

Albanian: please add this translation if you can
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: 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)
Maori: whakarau
Ottoman Turkish: اسیرلك (esirlik)
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

Roman: zarobljeníštvo (sh) n
Shor: олча (olča)
Slovak: zajatie n
Slovene: ujetništvo (sl) n
Southern Altai: олјо (olǰo)
Spanish: cautividad (es) f, cautiverio (es) m, disused: captiverio m / captividad f
Swedish: fångenskap (sv) c
Turkish: esaret (tr)
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

Roman: zarobljeníštvo (sh) n
Swedish: fångenskap (sv) c