Definition

Noun: 1. A country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country. This is the primary historical and political meaning. 2. A group of people of one nationality or ethnic group living in a foreign city or country. This refers to a community that maintains its cultural identity while living abroad. 3. A group of animals or plants of the same type living or growing together. This is a common biological term. 4. A place where a group of people with shared interests or occupations live together. This describes an intentional community.

Usage Examples

1. Political/Geographical Area:
   • India was a colony of the British Empire for nearly a century.
   • Many European nations established colonies in the Americas.
2. Community in a Foreign Land:
   • There is a large expatriate colony in the city.
   • The American colony in Paris was a center for writers and artists in the 1920s.
3. Biological Group:
   • We observed a colony of penguins on the ice.
   • The bacteria formed a visible colony on the Petri dish.
4. Intentional Community:
   • They founded an artists' colony in the countryside.
   • The remote island is home to a small nudist colony.

Advanced Usage

• "Crown colony": A British colony controlled by the Crown.
• "Penal colony": A settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace.
• "Space colony": A theoretical human settlement located in space, on another planet, or on a moon.

Variants and Related Words

• Colonial (adj): Relating to or characteristic of a colony or colonialism. .
• Colonist (n): A settler in or inhabitant of a colony.
• Colonize (v): To establish a colony in (a place).
• Colonialism (n): The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Synonyms

1. For a political area: Dependency, possession, territory, protectorate, settlement.
2. For a community: Enclave, community, settlement, ghetto (can have negative connotations).
3. For a biological group: Swarm (insects/birds), herd (animals), cluster, group.

Related Phrases

• "Former colony": A nation that was once a colony but is now independent.
• "Plant a colony": To establish a new settlement (archaic/literary usage).

Idioms

• Not applicable. The word "colony" itself is not commonly used in idiomatic expressions in modern English. Its meanings are typically literal.

Noun

1. (microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell
2. a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country
3. a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated
   • a nudist colony
   • an artists' colony
4. one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States
5. a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together
6. a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government
   • the American colony in Paris