colony
/'kɔləni/
Học thuậtThân thiện
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
- Political/Geographical Area:
- India was a colony of the British Empire for nearly a century.
- Many European nations established colonies in the Americas.
- 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.
- Biological Group:
- We observed a colony of penguins on the ice.
- The bacteria formed a visible colony on the Petri dish.
- 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
- For a political area: Dependency, possession, territory, protectorate, settlement.
- For a community: Enclave, community, settlement, ghetto (can have negative connotations).
- 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
- (microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell
- a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country
- a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated
- a nudist colony
- an artists' colony
- one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States
- a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together
- 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