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{%type%} Definitions

WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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Short "hint"

A person given to or taken by an enemy and held prisoner.

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Usage examples (33)
  • Do not let the future be held hostage by the past.
  • And U.S. troops chasing down insurgents in Falluja say they have found what they call a hostage slaughterhouse.
  • But have you seen an enormous rise in hostage taking?
  • It would be very useful in hostage rescue situations.
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Tutoring comment
  • Word of the 2009 Nat. Spelling Bee finals.[pellingbeeshirleys!Field2]
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.