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encampment

noun

Simple meaning

A place where people or things stay temporarily.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnkampmint

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnˈkæmpmɪnt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. countableoften military

    A place where people (such as displaced people, soldiers, or travellers) encamp, that is, stay in tents or other temporary structures; a camp or campsite.

  2. The act of encamping and living in tents in a camp

  3. uncountable

    The act of encamping or setting up a camp; also, the state of being encamped or in a camp.

  4. countablefigurative

    A place where people or things stay temporarily.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (often military) A place where people (such as displaced people, soldiers, or travellers) encamp, that is, stay in tents or other temporary structures; a camp or campsite.

Used this way, encampment is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Military
  • Historical writing
  • News/reporting
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • camping area , rarer, so it draws attention
  • bivouacking , rarer, so it draws attention
  • camping site , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

indian encampmentgrand encampmentmilitary encampmentlarge encampmentwinter encampmentnational encampmentwhole encampmentfirst encampment

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • camp

    A base of a military group, not necessarily temporary.

  • cantonment

    Temporary military living quarters.

  • bivouac

    Any temporary encampment.

  • camping

    The act of encamping and living in tents in a camp.

  • campground

    An area where tents are pitched.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: place where people (such as displaced people

camping areaRarecampbivouackingRarecampsitecantonmentcampgroundbivouaccamping siteRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.