Synonyms

colonize

American

[kol-uh-nahyz] / ˈkɒl əˌnaɪz /

especially British, colonise

verb (used with object)

1. (of a nation or government) to claim and forcibly take control of (a territory other than its own), usually sending some of its own people to settle there.
  
  England colonized Australia.
2. to move from one’s own country and settle in (such a territory).
  
  Dutch farmers were among the first Europeans to colonize the river valleys of New Jersey and New York.
to be the first settlers in.

Southern Pacific islanders are thought to have colonized Hawaii around a.d. 450.
to compel or induce (people) to settle in an area for economic or political purposes.

The government made efforts to colonize laborers and their families in areas suitable for growing rice.
Biology. (of a species of plant or animal) to move or be transported to (a new habitat) and seek to become established there.

Arthropods were the first animal species to colonize land around 450 million years ago.
Microbiology, Medicine/Medical. (of a microbe) to multiply on or in (another organism), especially without causing infection or disease.

Researchers attempted to get the bacteria in a probiotic to successfully colonize the intestines of 23 volunteers.

verb (used without object)

to take control of or settle in territories other than one’s own.

Many other European powers were colonizing during the modern period besides France.
When the British colonized in Australia, the basic rights of Aboriginals were taken away.

colonize British

/ ˈkɒləˌnaɪz /

verb

to send colonists to or establish a colony in (an area)
to settle in (an area) as colonists
(tr) to transform (a community) into a colony
(of plants and animals) to become established in (a new environment)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of colonize

First recorded in 1615–25; colon(y) + -ize

Explanation

To colonize is to settle in, and take control of, land outside your own borders. Usually, a large, powerful country colonizes a territory or area that's much less powerful. There are many examples through history of powerful countries that colonized various regions of the world in order to gain natural resources or to obtain more land for their citizens to live in. When this happens, it's rarely good news for the people who lived there already. Colonize and colony come from the Latin colonus, "tenant farmer" or "settler in new land," from the root colere, "to cultivate, till, or inhabit."

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

colonize colonizes colonized colonizing

Who knows if Mr. Musk will every colonize Mars, but the surest bet is never to bet against American innovation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

John Ward, one of the wealthiest men in the world, has funded a two-year trip around Titan to determine whether Saturn’s moon would be a good place for humans to colonize.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

These "whale fall" sites create temporary but rich ecosystems where microbes quickly colonize and flourish.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026

The discovery that bacteria can colonize surfaces even when their normal swimming machinery fails has important health implications.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2026

Australia will colonize the islands to its north and connect by some isthmian umbilicus to Asia.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

In their native Japan, the East Asian Joro spider colonizes most of the country.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 13, 2024

Despite its gruesome appearance, this mushroom is beneficial for the coniferous trees it colonizes.

From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2023

The fungus colonizes the trays, resulting in a material that, through an undisclosed proprietary procedure, looks and feels like leather, according to the company.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 28, 2022

Abby Lloyd’s show “Goodbye Dolly” consists of precisely one work: a huge, 12 foot-tall rag doll that colonizes an entire end of the gallery, an 11th-floor prow-shaped apartment in Greenwich Village.

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2021

Etienne’s huge study colonizes the entire fifth floor, alternately deeply quiet or else full of voices or music or static.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Trees colonized by golden oyster mushrooms contained far fewer fungal species, and the overall mix of fungi was altered compared to unaffected trees.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2026

Before Europeans colonized North America, bald eagles were pretty much everywhere there was a river, lake, or stream large enough to support sizable fish.

From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026

It accounts for more than 200,000 jobs and has colonized entire neighborhoods.

From Barron's ● Feb. 16, 2026

First colonized by Scandinavian missionaries in 1721, and ruled by Denmark alone from 1814, Greenland was isolated from the world during the age of empire.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 2026

In other words, just one group of paleo- Indians colonized the Americas, but it did so two or three times.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Around 12 million years ago, the development of the circumpolar current helped other penguin groups spread through the sub-Antarctic, eventually colonizing remote islands and archipelagoes and reaching as far north as Africa and South America.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

Those include colonizing Mars, putting more than 1 million satellites in orbit and putting mass drivers on the moon.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

At this point in his public arc, his affinity for the material is more like a colonizing claim.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026

The company speaks openly about its ambitions to put humans on Mars, and has even tied a massive bonus for Musk to colonizing the red planet with one million inhabitants.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

King George II, ignoring French claims to the Ohio River valley, had given permission for colonizing the area to the Ohio Company, a group of Virginia landowners and London merchants.

From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023