con‧vict 2 / ˈkɒnvɪkt $ ˈkɑːn- / noun [ countable ]
someone who has been proved to be guilty of a crime and sent to prison :
an escaped convict
THESAURUS
prisoner someone who is kept in a prison as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting for their trial : Prisoners may be locked in their cells for twenty-two hours a day. | a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder
convict especially written someone who has been found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison. Convict is used especially about someone who is sent to prison for a long time. It is more commonly used in historical descriptions, or in the phrase an escaped convict : The convicts were sent from England to Australia. | Police were hunting for an escaped convict. | Low-risk convicts help to fight forest fires and clean up public lands.
inmate someone who is kept in a prison or a mental hospital : Some inmates are allowed to have special privileges. | He was described by a fellow inmate as a quiet man.
captive especially literary someone who is kept somewhere and not allowed to go free, especially in a war or fighting. Captive is a rather formal word which is used especially in literature : Their objective was to disarm the enemy and release the captives. | She was held captive (= kept as a prisoner ) in the jungle for over three years.
prisoner of war a soldier, member of the navy etc who is caught by the enemy during a war and kept in the enemy’s country : My grandad was a prisoner of war in Germany. | They agreed to release two Iranian prisoners of war.
hostage someone who is kept somewhere as a prisoner, in order to force people to agree to do something, for example in order to get money or to achive a political aim : Diplomats are continuing their efforts to secure the release of the hostages. | The US hostages were held in Tehran for over a year.
detainee/internee someone who is kept in a prison, usually because of their political views and often without a trial : In some cases, political detainees have been beaten or mistreated. | 23,531 people passed through the camps between 1944 and 1962, including 14,647 political internees. | the detainees at Guantanamo Bay