How to Use detention in a Sentence

detention

noun
  • The jail is only used for brief detentions.
  • He got detention for being late to class.
  • They both got three detentions this year.
  • The play is set in a house of detention.
    — Jeffrey Eugenides, New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2026
  • He has been held in detention for more than three months.
    — Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The detention has been costly – in more ways than one.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2025
  • In about four weeks, crews will start digging a detention pond.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 29 Apr. 2026
  • He was released from prison and placed on home detention.
    — Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The third bit, of course, leans into a school/detention joke.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 31 Mar. 2023
  • So there’s a lot of work being done right now in the detention planning.
    — Anna Giaritelli, The Washington Examiner, 20 May 2026
  • Then he himself was flagged for detention.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Court records show a detention hearing in his case is scheduled for next week.
    — Elaine Rojas-Castillo, CBS News, 13 June 2026
  • Hours later, the children, who were sick from their time in detention, crashed.
    — New York Times, 26 May 2026
  • My team had been told I’d been transferred from detention but didn’t know when or where.
    — Brittney Griner, TIME, 3 May 2024
  • While held in detention there for a month and a half, she was given only a bit of bread to eat each day.
    — Kate Morrissey, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Feb. 2022
  • In the years since, life in one form of detention or another has become his norm.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2025
  • The detention rate has risen from 54% to 81%.
    — Megan De Mar, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Liam's detention last month prompted anger.
    — Arkansas Online, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Ben spent about a month in juvenile detention.
    — David Clarey, jsonline.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • His third detention came roughly two weeks later.
    — Nicole Foy, ProPublica, 15 May 2026
  • Gil’s detention at first seemed to have caught Díaz-Canel by surprise.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 3 Nov. 2025
  • He was scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing.
    — ABC News, 18 June 2026
  • On the day of his detention, court records list a felony charge, though no details about the charge are provided.
    — Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald, 27 Sep. 2025
  • Mieraili learned Thai while in detention, according to his lawyer.
    — ABC News, 11 June 2026
  • His discharge has been delayed due to his father’s detention.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Neighbors who won’t report a crime to the police for fear of unjust detention.
    — Peter Cook, New York Daily News, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Moshkovich has denied the charges and no one seems to know who among his detractors was behind his detention.
    — Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 8 Sep. 2025
  • At least two journalists have been killed and others tortured while in detention, the group said.
    — Arkansas Online, 4 Feb. 2022
  • His detention of about two years was the longest for an American.
    — Time, 19 July 2023
  • Griner remained in pre-trial detention for more than three months prior to this month's trial.
    — Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 20 July 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detention.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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