colony

B2
US /ˈkɔl.ə.ni/ UK /ˈkɒl.ə.ni/
noun verb Freq #5720

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated

    a nudist colony

  2. 2
    noun

    A geographical area under the remote control of a country; especially to extract resources or exploit labor from that area.

    Much of the eastern United States was formerly a British colony; other areas were French, Spanish, Dutch, or Swedish colonies.

  3. 3
    noun

    A group of people who settle an area and maintain ties to their country of origin.

    a colony of British expats in Spain

  4. 4
    noun

    A group of people with similar interests, occupations, or characteristics, living in a particular area; the area such people occupy.

    a nudist colony; the statue was put up right in the middle of the artist colony

  5. 5
    noun

    A group of organisms of same or different species living together in close association.

    ant colony; coral colony

  6. 6
    noun

    An apartment complex or neighborhood.

    Our colony is quite small, but each apartment is large.

  7. 7
    noun

    A potential new chapter of a fraternity or sorority awaiting official recognition from their headquarters.

    That weekend in 2013, fraternity members from Baruch, a commuter school in Manhattan whose Pi Delta Psi colony was only about three years old, gathered in a large rental house in Tunkhannock Township, Pa. Early on a frigid morning, Mr. Deng followed the other pledges in putting on a blindfold and backpack.

  8. 8
    verb

    To colonize.

    Such black Attendants Colonied thy Cell, / But for thy Preſence, Car’sbrook had been Hell.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁-e-ti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Latin colōnus Latin colōniader. Middle English colane English colony From Middle English colane, colonye, from Latin colōnia (“colony”), from colōnus (“farmer; colonist”), from colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from earlier *quelō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”). Doublet of Cologne, Colonia, and Köln.

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Thesaurus

Word family
Derived forms autocolonycolonercolonialcolonialismcoloniarchcolonigeniccolonisecolonistcolonizecolonyhoodintercolonyintracolony
Related forms colognecultculturemetropole

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