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• colony
  colony

  noun

  a country or territory claimed and forcibly taken control of by a foreign power which sends its own people to settle there.
• Colony
  Colony

  noun

  The, a city in NE Texas.

colony

¹ American  

[kol-uh-nee] / ˈkɒl ə ni /

noun

• colonies
  plural

1. 

   a country or territory claimed and forcibly taken control of by a foreign power which sends its own people to settle there.

   Many African nations are former European colonies.

2. a group of people who leave their native country to form a settlement in a territory that their own government has claimed and forcibly taken control of.

   The Spanish colony in Mexico was numerous, powerful, and rich.

3. any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power.

4. the Colonies, the British territories that formed the original 13 states of the United States: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

5. a number of people coming from the same country or speaking the same language, residing in a foreign country or city or in a particular section of it; enclave.

   There is a sizable Polish colony in Israel.

6. 1. any group of individuals having similar interests, occupations, etc., usually living in a particular locality; community.

      After college she joined a colony of artists in Florence.

   2. the district, quarter, or dwellings inhabited by such a group.

      The Greek island is now an artists' colony.

   Synonyms:

   band, body

7. Microbiology. a collection or mass of bacteria growing together as the descendants of a single cell.

8. Ecology. a group of organisms of the same kind living or growing in close association.

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Colony ² American  

[kol-uh-nee] / ˈkɒl ə ni /

noun

1. The, a city in NE Texas.

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colony British  

/ ˈkɒlənɪ /

noun

1. a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it

2. the community formed by such settlers

3. a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state

4. 1. a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority

      an artists' colony

      the American colony in London

   2. the area itself

5. zoology

   1. a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together, esp in large numbers

   2. an interconnected group of polyps of a colonial organism

6. bacteriol a group of bacteria, fungi, etc, derived from one or a few spores, esp when grown on a culture medium

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colony Scientific  

/ kŏl′ə-nē /

1. A group of the same kind of animals, plants, or one-celled organisms living or growing together. Organisms live in colonies for their mutual benefit, and especially their protection. Multicellular organisms may have evolved out of colonies of unicellular organisms.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• semicolony
  noun
• subcolony
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colonies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colony

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English colonie, from Middle French or directly from Latin colōnia, from colōn(us) colonus + -ia -y ³

Explanation

A colony is a group of people who settle in a new place but keep ties to their homeland. The people who founded the United States first came to America to live as part of a British colony. Colony comes from the Latin colonia, meaning "settled land, farm." Colony can also mean "a group of people who've gathered to live near each other and share the same interest." An artists' colony would be a place where everyone's an artist, while a Dunkin' Donuts colony would be full of coffee lovers. The same rules apply to the animal kingdom — an ant colony has a shared interest in ruining your picnic.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colony Colony colonies

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico "is neither nor will be a colony or protectorate of any foreign country," after Trump's post.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

Jacquie Navratil, who always has cat trapping gear in her van, prepares to trap a colony at Angel City Lumber.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

Each colony was positioned about 5 millimeters from its nearest neighbor.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

It is more of a vassal, or protectorate, or a colony.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Threats to the bee population became a global concern starting in 2006, when beekeepers first reported significant colony losses.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Located just over an hour away from his Malibu Colony retreat, the funky dwelling, which is set on 5.7 acres, has a total of five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

The Plymouth Colony, Mr. Reynolds writes, stood out to later Americans as “a beacon of democratic experimentation and egalitarianism.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Mr. Johnston is the author of “The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” and “Jennie’s Boy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

Two months later, Colony Capital bought the defaulted loan for $22.5 million.

From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026

During the years that I stayed in the Norfolk Prison Colony, never did any official directly say anything to me about those letters, although, of course, they all passed through the prison censorship.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

“Being from Wisconsin, I wasn’t used to seeing colonies of stray cats everywhere because that’s a very real problem that’s going on in L.A.,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

The largest circuit demonstrated in the study contained 24 interconnected bacterial colonies and was designed to add two inputs together.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

The initiative comes as France is seeking to improve relations with Africa, particularly in former colonies with which it has prickly ties.

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

The Five Nations of the Iroquois allied with several English colonies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

The city had one of the busiest harbors in the colonies, with merchant ships heading to the Caribbean and Europe and all corners of the world.

From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis

Related Words

• outpost
• protectorate
• province
• territory