supermax

English

Etymology

From super- +‎ max (as in maximum security prison).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

supermax (plural supermaxes)

1. (US) A prison with the highest possible level of security.
   • 2012 June 18, Andrew Cohen, “An American Gulag: Descending into Madness at Supermax”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], retrieved 2023-06-11:

     As he sits today in Supermax, Powers had amputated his fingers, a testicle, his scrotum and his earlobes, has cut his Achilles tendon, and had tried several times to kill himself.

Adjective

supermax (not comparable)

1. Being, or pertaining to, such a prison.

   Synonym: ADX

   • 2023 June 11, “‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in prison – report”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Kaczynski had been held in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge.