colonist

American  

[kol-uh-nist] / ˈkɒl ə nɪst /

noun

colonists plural

1. an inhabitant of a colony.

2. a member of a colonizing expedition.

3. (often initial capital letter) an inhabitant of the 13 British colonies that became the United States of America.

---

colonist British  

/ ˈkɒlənɪst /

noun

1. a person who settles or colonizes an area

2. an inhabitant or member of a colony

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• colonists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colonist

An Americanism dating back to 1695–1705; colon(y) + -ist

Explanation

A colonist is a member of a government-backed group that settles in a new country or region. The land that's claimed by a colonist is usually already occupied by another group of people. A colonist can also be called a settler, someone who helps start a settlement in a new land. You might think of colonial America and the original colonists, British subjects who settled along the eastern seaboard and claimed the land as their own, despite the presence of native people. Throughout history, colonists have tended to come from Western countries. At the heart of the word colonist is the Latin root colere, "to inhabit, tend, or guard."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colonist colonists

Instead of dancing xenomorphs, Bong made “Mickey 17,” in theaters Friday, a bleakly comedic sci-fi thriller set aboard a colonist spaceship bound for a distant icy planet.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2025

However, the researchers report their work revealed the "richness, abundance and composition" of the bee populations were "signficantly impacted by agricultural colonization after as little as 10-17 years of settlement by colonist farmers and ranchers."

From Science Daily ● Apr. 10, 2024

Pocahontas died several years later in March 1617 in Gravesend, England, while colonist John Rolfe died around March 1622, he added.

From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2023

It stands on the site where Samuel de Champlain, the French colonist and navigator who founded Quebec and New France, built a chapel in 1633.

From Reuters ● Jul. 28, 2022

“Divine providence,” the colonist Daniel Gookin wrote, favored “the quiet and peaceable settlement of the English.”

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

One of the main reasons colonists rebelled against the crown was that they wanted more Indigenous land—they wanted to move farther west into North America, but the king was telling them no.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026

This view came from England “and crossed the Atlantic with the colonists — and was adopted with little fanfare after the Revolution,” he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

The letter from the owner of the cargo, the East India Company, to the British government gives a breakdown of the tea destroyed on December 16, 1773 by American colonists.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

Over the next decade, rebellious colonists used ads to spread the word about boycotts on British products.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

Desiring cheap, expendable labor, colonists imported nearly eight thousand Africans from the western and southern parts of the continent in the mid-1600s.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

Related Words

• colonizer