DictionaryAI

camp

KAMP/kæmp/

Pluralcamps

Verbcamps, camping, camped

22 meanings of camp

Practice

  1. 1
    temporary sheltersnouncountable or uncountable
    A place with tents, huts or other simple shelters where people stay for a time, especially outdoors.

    The expedition's camp sat on a ridge overlooking the valley.

    By dawn the camp had emptied and the climbers were on the trail.

    UsageCommon phrases: at camp, back in camp, make camp, set up camp, break camp.

    Similarencampment, campsite

  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    An organized event, often held in tents or temporary lodging, that brings participants together for an activity.

    Hundreds of teenagers attended the leadership camp last August.

    The training camp ran for two weeks at the coastal resort.

    UsageCommon phrases omit the article: go to camp, at camp, home from camp. Use a camp for one particular program.

    Similarretreat, course, program, workshop

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To set up and stay in a tent or other temporary shelter, especially outdoors.

    Each August they camp high in the mountains.

    Volunteers camped near the dig site throughout the season.

    UsageFor the leisure activity, use go camping. To say where, use a place phrase: camp near the river.

    Similarbivouac

  4. 4
    mass detentionnouncountable or uncountable
    A guarded place where prisoners of war, political prisoners or other detainees are held, often in harsh conditions.

    The regime built a camp for political prisoners in the remote north.

    Many who entered the camp died of starvation and overwork.

    UsageUsually in compounds: prison camp, labor camp, concentration camp.

    Similargulag

    Note

    In the plural, with no qualifier, the word can carry this meaning on its own: a threat to round people up and put them in camps needs no further explanation.

  5. 5
    military basenouncountable or uncountable
    A base where a military group is stationed, not necessarily temporary.

    The new recruits reported to camp at sunrise.

    Officers inspected the border camp twice a week.

    Similarbase, barracks, garrison, post, station

  6. 6
    sidenouncountable or uncountable
    A group of people united by the same strong ideals or political position.

    The debate split the party into two opposing camps.

    As the debate wore on, more and more delegates drifted into the reformist camp.

    UsageUsually with a modifier: the reformist camp, two opposing camps; people are in a camp.

    Similarfaction, side, wing, bloc, group

  7. 7
    nounslangcountable or uncountable
    A prison or other place of incarceration of any kind.
    Lantana is a sweet camp. It's an old hospital that has been converted to a drug treatment center for prisoners.
    2009, Nick Chandler, Jeanette Billings

    Similarprison, jail, pen, joint, slammer

    Note

    An insider's word from prison speech, used for any institution, however little it resembles a field of tents. In Nick Chandler and Jeanette Billings's Determined to Change (2009), an old hospital converted into a drug treatment center is "a sweet camp." It is slang, fit for dialogue and memoir, and is not to be confused with the political confinement camp.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Determined to Change is credited to Nick Chandler and Jeanette Billings. en.wiktionary.org
    • The book calls an old hospital converted into a drug treatment center “a sweet camp.” en.wiktionary.org
  8. 8
    everyone therenouncountable or uncountable
    The whole group of people gathered together in an encampment, considered as one body.

    The general addressed the camp before the battle began.

    Word spread through the camp that supplies were running low.

    Similartroops, ranks

    Note

    The place standing for the people in it. When Macaulay writes that "the camp broke up with the confusion of a flight," it is the soldiers who scatter, not the tents. Keep it apart from the obsolete "army" sense, which names the fighting force itself rather than whoever happens to be encamped.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of camp apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–8, 12, 14–20

Latin campus ("open field, level plain") passed through Proto-West Germanic into Old English as camp ("battle, battlefield, open space"), which became Middle English kampe ("battlefield, open space"). Around 1520 Middle French camp, "place where an army lodges temporarily," reinforced it. Campus and champ are doublets. The verb comes from Old English campian ("to fight").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

  • Latin campus meant an open field or level plain. en.wiktionary.org
  • Latin campus passed through Proto-West Germanic into Old English camp. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English camp meant battle, battlefield or open space. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English camp became Middle English kampe, meaning battlefield or open space. en.wiktionary.org
  • Middle French camp, meaning a temporary army lodging place, reinforced the English word around 1520. en.wiktionary.org
  • Campus and champ are doublets of camp and of each other. en.wiktionary.org
  • The verb descends from Old English campian, meaning to fight. en.wiktionary.org
Meanings 9–11, 13

No one knows its origin. One idea is camper, a 17th-century French verb meaning "to put oneself in a pose." Others are an assumed dialect word in English meaning "rough, uncouth," or the noun camp. It is thought to come from Polari, but beyond that its history is obscure.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts