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

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

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

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

But the director, who wrote his adaptation in collaboration with Philippe Piazzo, also isn’t content with mere novelistic faithfulness to an author whose traces of colonial allegory in “The Stranger” have often been found problematic.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

It’s worth noting that it was the American officials at the treaty’s drafting sessions who insisted on Article 6, so that the U.S. military would not get roped in to fight Europe’s colonial wars.

From Slate • Apr. 9, 2026

"Many of Sydney's early colonial buildings are held together with oyster shell."

From Science Daily • Apr. 6, 2026

The Portuguese, he writes, were by the 17th century the first colonial power to grasp the financial potential in basing industrialized agriculture on mass slavery abetted by the seizure of conquered land.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

These researchers tried to peer through the colonial records to the Indian lives beneath.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann