concentration camp

Meaning

Noun

• A camp where troops are assembled, prior to combat or transport.
• A camp where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners, prisoners of war, refugees etc., are detained for the purpose of confining them in one place, typically with inadequate or inhumane facilities.
• A situation wherein crowding and extremely harsh conditions take place.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• death camp
• extermination camp
• internment camp

Origin

• From concentration + camp. In later use partly after German Konzentrationslager, itself a calque of the English term.