Inmate
nounA person confined in a prison or other institution.
How to spell inmate
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce inmate
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does inmate mean?
- nounA person confined in a prison or other institution.
Inmate in a sentence
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Each inmate was given a small cell and a daily exercise period.
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The prison reported that one inmate had been moved to a secure hospital.
Where does inmate come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Inmate first appears in English in the late 1500s, formed simply by joining the word 'in' to 'mate', a companion or fellow dweller. The 'mate' element comes from a Germanic root tied to sharing food at the same table, the same family that gives us 'messmate' and the everyday 'mate' for a friend. In its earliest use an inmate was literally someone who lodged inside another person's house alongside the owner, a lodger or sub-tenant rather than a prisoner. Over the following centuries the meaning narrowed to a person confined in an institution, especially a prison, asylum, or workhouse, where many people are housed together under one roof. The spelling is straightforward once you see it as the two plain words 'in' and 'mate' bolted together, which is exactly how it was coined.
How the word is built
- in- (inside, within)
- mate (companion, fellow dweller)
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