Incarnation and incarceration are two words that are sometimes confused, as they are very close in spelling and pronunciation. We will examine the definitions of incarnation and incarceration, where these words came from and some examples of their use in sentences.
Incarnation is someone who embodies an ideal, a trait, or certain characteristic, or someone who is a deity or spirit who is born into flesh. For instance, Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the Son of God. Incarnation may also refer to a certain body or lifetime when discussing reincarnation. In addition, incarnation is sometimes used figuratively to refer to a particular version of something, or a reinvention of something. The word incarnation is derived from the Latin word incarnari, which means made flesh. Related words are incarnate, incarnates, incarnated, incarnating.
Incarceration is the state of being in jail or prison, or simply the state of being captured or confined. The word incarceration is derived from the Latin word incarcerare, which means to imprison. Related words are incarcerate, incarcerates, incarcerated, incarcerating.
Examples
Trump’s performance of a certain type of fast-food engorged, porn-obsessed, corpulent, digital depravity is so manifestly an incarnation of our worst national ideals, that the closest parallels to Trump as an authoritarian seem not to be a Viktor Orban or even a Vladimir Putin, but rather the Roman emperors. (Newsweek Magazine)
In its first incarnation, the bill (SB308) was too broad an attempt to distinguish between being on public and private property when it comes to drunken driving. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Wisconsin jails had the highest incarceration rate of Native Americans in the country in 2013, according to recent numbers from a survey of American Indians and Alaskan Natives in local jails by the U.S. Department of Justice. (The Sawyer County Record)