colonial

American  

[kuh-loh-nee-uhl] / kəˈloʊ ni əl /

adjective

1. of, concerning, or pertaining to a colony or colonies.

   the colonial policies of France.

2. of, concerning, or pertaining to colonialism; colonialistic.

3. (often initial capital letter) pertaining to the 13 British colonies that became the United States of America, or to their period.

4. Ecology. forming a colony.

5. (initial capital letter)

   1. noting or pertaining to the styles of architecture, ornament, and furnishings of the British colonies in America in the 17th and 18th centuries, mainly adapted to local materials and demands from prevailing English styles.

   2. noting or pertaining to various imitations of the work of American colonial artisans.

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noun

• colonials
  plural

1. an inhabitant of a colony.

2. a house in or imitative of the Colonial style.

colonial British  

/ kəˈləʊnɪəl /

adjective

1. of, characteristic of, relating to, possessing, or inhabiting a colony or colonies

2. (often capital) characteristic of or relating to the 13 British colonies that became the United States of America (1776)

3. (often capital) of or relating to the colonies of the British Empire

4. denoting, relating to, or having the style of Neoclassical architecture used in the British colonies in America in the 17th and 18th centuries

5. of or relating to the period of Australian history before Federation (1901)

6. (of organisms such as corals and bryozoans) existing as a colony of polyps

7. (of animals and plants) having become established in a community in a new environment

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noun

1. a native of a colony

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncolonial
  adjective
• procolonial
  adjective
• semicolonial
  adjective
• uncolonial
  adjective
• colonially
  adverb
• noncolonially
  adverb
• semicolonially
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colonials
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of colonial

An Americanism dating back to 1770–80; colony + -al ¹

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Explanation

The colonial period of United States history occurred before 1776, when America was still 13 colonies under British rule. You can use the word colonial to describe an inhabitant of a colony ruled by another country, but you wouldn’t call a painter living in an artists' colony a colonial. On the other hand, ants, which live in ant colonies, are colonial insects. British colonial is a style of furniture the British favored for their houses and tents in India or on safari in Africa — when India and parts of Africa were British colonies.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colonial colonials

Rosario Cossio, head of the town's Afro-Peruvian Museum, said that Zana's reputation for being cursed was linked to the murder of a priest during the colonial era.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026

On previous occasions, the King has used strong language, such as talking about his "greatest sorrow and regret" at the "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence" of the colonial era on a visit to Kenya.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

In Guyana on Friday, he visited a site of execution of local people during British colonial rule, pausing to reflect in a gesture seen as indicating his awareness of that past injustice.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026

Yet the same colonial project that produced such horrors also gave Spenser the resources to create one of the great literary works of his age.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

The colonial architecture felt foreign but also crisp and unimposing compared to the Gothic pinnacles of Cambridge.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

The Singhs sold clocks and watches to the colonials while secretly rebelling against British rule.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025

Stately, white colonials are on one block, while modest Spanish revivals sit on the next.

From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2025

Developers opened up this part of Arlington in the 1950s, building ranches and colonials, working from the same three or four floor plans across a dozen square miles.

From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2025

The houses — in a mix of styles including split-levels and Dutch colonials — are on quarter-acre lots surrounded by mature trees and shrubs.

From Washington Post ● May 11, 2022

He despised those American colonials who had fought against his England, yet he still chose to settle in Philadelphia, where he set up a royalist newspaper called The Porcupine's Gazette.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

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