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"prison" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often penitentiary (12 letters).
Definitions
Place where people are legally confined
Word origin
From Middle English prisoun, prison, from Old English prisūn, a borrowing from Old French prison, from Latin prehensiōnem, accusative singular of prehensiō, from the verb prehendō. Doublet of prehension.
Used in a sentence
“The cold stone walls of the prison had stood for over a century.”
“Prison was a harrowing experience for him.”
“The academy was a prison for many of its students because of its strict teachers.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Jail”6 letters
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