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• colony
  colony

  noun

  a country or territory claimed and forcibly taken control of by a foreign power which sends its own people to settle there.
• Colony
  Colony

  noun

  The, a city in NE Texas.

colony

¹ American  

[kol-uh-nee] / ˈkɒl ə ni /

noun

• colonies
  plural

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 1. 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.

   2. the district, quarter, or dwellings inhabited by such a group.

      The Greek island is now an artists' colony.

   Synonyms:

   band, body

7. Microbiology. a collection or mass of bacteria growing together as the descendants of a single cell.

8. Ecology. a group of organisms of the same kind living or growing in close association.

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Colony ² American  

[kol-uh-nee] / ˈkɒl ə ni /

noun

1. The, a city in NE Texas.

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colony British  

/ ˈkɒlənɪ /

noun

1. a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it

2. the community formed by such settlers

3. a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state

4. 1. a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority

      an artists' colony

      the American colony in London

   2. the area itself

5. zoology

   1. a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together, esp in large numbers

   2. an interconnected group of polyps of a colonial organism

6. bacteriol a group of bacteria, fungi, etc, derived from one or a few spores, esp when grown on a culture medium

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colony Scientific  

/ kŏl′ə-nē /

1. A group of the same kind of animals, plants, or one-celled organisms living or growing together. Organisms live in colonies for their mutual benefit, and especially their protection. Multicellular organisms may have evolved out of colonies of unicellular organisms.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• semicolony
  noun
• subcolony
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colonies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of colony

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English colonie, from Middle French or directly from Latin colōnia, from colōn(us) colonus + -ia -y ³

Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colony Colony colonies

Albany, like New York City, originated in the colony of New Netherland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

He wrote the foreword for the scholarly book “California Grizzly” and from his Montana home keeps an eye on the well-being of his home state’s precariously small colony of grizzlies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

Dutch influence remains around New York City, a legacy of the short-lived 17th-century Dutch colony along the Hudson River.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

"If the entire colony was exposed, this could lead to decreased pollination effectiveness and reduced honey production, risking colony survival and long-term stability."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

Their survival depended on ongoing diplomatic conversations between Wahunsonacock, the leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, and John Smith, leader of the Jamestown colony.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Located just over an hour away from his Malibu Colony retreat, the funky dwelling, which is set on 5.7 acres, has a total of five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

Around 1607, settlers in the nearby Popham Colony constructed a wooden sailboat, dubbed Virginia—the first oceangoing boat built by English settlers in North America.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Henry Vane the Younger fled to America from England in 1635 and was elected, at age 23, as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Two months later, Colony Capital bought the defaulted loan for $22.5 million.

From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026

“Travel by night and follow the road south. I’ve never been that far, but I hear tell that it goes straight through Georgia Colony to the end of the world—Spanish territory.”

From "Copper Sun" by Sharon M. Draper

That shifts attention toward other characteristics that may have helped ants, bees and wasps repeatedly evolve highly cooperative colonies.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026

France and Britain housed small communities from former colonies—an immigration pattern so mundane that 1960s France let citizens of former West African colonies fly into Paris without a passport.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Emily Burton, conservation manager, said: "Gannet populations have suffered significant declines, and many colonies are still recovering from the impacts of avian influenza."

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

They point out that “solar farm” is a misnomer because the land — an alluvial plane with Yucca colonies dating back hundreds of years, creosote rhizomatic rings even longer — will be scraped and fenced.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

As the Ulster Scots arrived in the British colonies, they settled in Pennsylvania and in other British-held areas on the homelands of several Indigenous nations.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Related Words

• outpost
• protectorate
• province
• territory