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

Etymology

Origin of colonial

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

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

That thought is echoed in the album’s cover art, an image of two miniature Finn Wolfhards facing off, donning colonial garb and brandishing weapons.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

In comparing those statistics with those of its former colonial overlord, Hartnett, Bank of America’s chief equity strategist, found an emphatic stateside outperformance on almost all fronts.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026

What is more accurate is that they didn’t want to be colonial subjects themselves but still wanted to be an empire.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026

His coming of age occurs when, while fighting for Germany in World War I at the colonial outpost of Tsingtau, in China, he is captured by his adoptive country of Japan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

The Revolution is often presented as a war for freedom and liberty and to rid America of tyrannical colonial taxes.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

Many Americans in this 250th year of independence will look back proudly on those colonials who rebelled against British taxation by dumping tea in Boston Harbor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026

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

From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2025

The term is also historically inaccurate, he said, because the first U.S. president and his contemporaries would not have identified as colonials.

From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2023

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