Prisoner of war
![Austro-Hungarian POWs in Russia, 1915](/Images/godic/202502/04/Gorskii._Austrian_prisoners_of_war_in_Olonets_province5817.jpg")
![An Iranian soldier watching Iraqi prisoners of war sitting in a pickup truck during Iran–Iraq War.](/Images/godic/202502/04/An_Iranian_soldier_watching_Iraqi_captives_sitting_in_a_pickup_truck5817.jpeg")
![American prisoners captured in Ardennes in December 1944](/Images/godic/202502/04/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-J28589,_Kriegsgefangene_amerikanische_Soldaten5817.jpg")
![Engraving of Nubian prisoners, Abu Simbel, Egypt, 13th century BC](/Images/godic/202502/04/Abu-Simbel_temple35817.jpg")
A prisoner of war (POW, PoW, PW, P/W, WP, PsW, enemy prisoner of war (EPW) or "missing-captured") is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates to 1660.