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Imprisonment vs Punishment - What's the difference?

imprisonment | punishment |

As nouns the difference between imprisonment and punishment

is that imprisonment is a confinement in a place, especially a prison or a jail, as punishment for a crime while punishment is the act or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction.

imprisonment

English

Alternative forms

* emprisonment (obsolete)

Noun

  • A confinement in a place, especially a prison or a jail, as punishment for a crime.
  • * Spenser
  • His sinews waxen weak and raw / Through long imprisonment and hard constraint.
  • * Blackstone
  • Every confinement of the person is an imprisonment , whether it be in a common prison, or in a private house, or even by forcibly detaining one in the public streets.
  • * (Sir Walter Raleigh)
  • Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments , tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings

    punishment

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction.
  • A penalty to punish wrongdoing, especially for crime.
  • A suffering by pain or loss imposed as retribution
  • (figuratively) Any treatment or experience so harsh it feels like being punished; rough handling
  • a vehicle that can take a lot of punishment

    Synonyms

    * castigation * punition * beating

    Antonyms

    * reward

    Hyponyms

    * retribution

    Derived terms

    * corporal punishment * mirror punishment * (l)