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.
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.
any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power.
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.
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.
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.
the district, quarter, or dwellings inhabited by such a group.
The Greek island is now an artists' colony.
Microbiology. a collection or mass of bacteria growing together as the descendants of a single cell.
Ecology. a group of organisms of the same kind living or growing in close association.
a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it
the community formed by such settlers
a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state
a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority
an artists' colony
the American colony in London
the area itself
zoology
a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together, esp in large numbers
an interconnected group of polyps of a colonial organism
bacteriol a group of bacteria, fungi, etc, derived from one or a few spores, esp when grown on a culture medium
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English colonie, from Middle French or directly from Latin colōnia, from colōn(us) colonus + -ia -y 3
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Only during the final stage of their lives do they leave the colony to search for food.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
A former Portuguese colony in the Gulf of Guinea, the island nation of 200,000 inhabitants has a history marked by attempted coups including one in 2022 that was promptly thwarted by the military.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
The former Portuguese colony is governed by Beijing as a special region of China, but it has its own import rules and resembles an overseas market for mainland producers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Morocco, a former French colony, has almost as many French-born players on its roster, six, as it does native Moroccans, seven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
On his first voyage in 1492, Columbus started a colony of about forty men on the island he called Hispaniola, which is currently divided into the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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
Indeed, Colony Ridge is the largest Justice Department case since at least 2018 in which the settlement includes no monetary compensation for victims.
From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2026
For the next years, I was the nearest thing to a hermit in the Norfolk Prison Colony.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
The Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, is home to large communities of working-class immigrants from the country’s former colonies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
The right to have guns for self-defense arose in England and came to the American colonies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
"What makes this study exciting is that it connects molecular changes in gene expression to real-world consequences for individual bees and their colonies," said Michael Goodisman, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
When researchers built Biosphere 2 in Arizona to prototype colonies on the moon or Mars, trees grown within the sealed environment kept falling over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
“That book in the library. By Dr. Eastman. He wrote it in Louisiana. Carville, Louisiana. How many leper colonies can there be in just one town?” she said.
From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
