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.
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.
any people or territory separated from but subject to a ruling power.
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.
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.
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.
the district, quarter, or dwellings inhabited by such a group.
The Greek island is now an artists' colony.
Microbiology. a collection or mass of bacteria growing together as the descendants of a single cell.
Ecology. a group of organisms of the same kind living or growing in close association.
a body of people who settle in a country distant from their homeland but maintain ties with it
the community formed by such settlers
a subject territory occupied by a settlement from the ruling state
a community of people who form a national, racial, or cultural minority
an artists' colony
the American colony in London
the area itself
zoology
a group of the same type of animal or plant living or growing together, esp in large numbers
an interconnected group of polyps of a colonial organism
bacteriol a group of bacteria, fungi, etc, derived from one or a few spores, esp when grown on a culture medium
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English colonie, from Middle French or directly from Latin colōnia, from colōn(us) colonus + -ia -y 3
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The results indicate that task organization within a bee colony has a neural foundation.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
A former Portuguese colony in the Gulf of Guinea, the island nation of 200,000 inhabitants has a history marked by attempted coups including one in 2022 that was promptly thwarted by the military.
From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026
The former Portuguese colony is governed by Beijing as a special region of China, but it has its own import rules and resembles an overseas market for mainland producers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Morocco, a former French colony, has almost as many French-born players on its roster, six, as it does native Moroccans, seven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
“Go to the colony, find the Msaidizi. Colony, Msaidizi. We can do this.”
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
The Plymouth Colony, Mr. Reynolds writes, stood out to later Americans as “a beacon of democratic experimentation and egalitarianism.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Mr. Johnston is the author of “The Colony of Unrequited Dreams” and “Jennie’s Boy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Two months later, Colony Capital bought the defaulted loan for $22.5 million.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
Colony Ridge repossessed more than 15,000 lots, many owned by immigrants, a 2023 investigation by the Houston Landing found.
From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2026
He instructed me to return the next day for our rehearsal and exhorted me to find clothes better suited to playing before the premier citizens in the Colony.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
The Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, is home to large communities of working-class immigrants from the country’s former colonies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
"What makes this study exciting is that it connects molecular changes in gene expression to real-world consequences for individual bees and their colonies," said Michael Goodisman, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
When researchers built Biosphere 2 in Arizona to prototype colonies on the moon or Mars, trees grown within the sealed environment kept falling over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
A self- made man, the illiterate, illegitimate, neglected son of an army captain, he ached with dreams of wealth and chivalric glory despite the fortune he had already acquired in the Spanish colonies.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
