noun
- An example of a colony was Massachusetts under British rule during the 17th and 18th centuries.
- An example of a colony is a group of ants.
The definition of a colony is a group of people who create a settlement in a distant land but remain under the governmental control of their native country or a group of similar animals that live together.
colony
noun
pl. -·nies- a group of people who settle in a distant land but remain under the political jurisdiction of their native land
- the region thus settled
- a territory distant from the state having jurisdiction or control over it
- [C-] [pl.] the thirteen British colonies in North America that won their independence in the Revolutionary War and became the U.S.: they were Va., N.Y., Mass., Conn., R.I., N.H., Md., N.J., N.C., S.C., Pa., Del., and Ga.
- a community of people of the same nationality or pursuits concentrated in a particular district or place: the Hungarian colony of Cleveland, an artists' colony
- such a district or place
- Bacteriology a group of cells that are derived from a single initial cell, growing separately on a solid culture medium
- Biol. a group of similar plants or animals living or growing together
- Zool. a compound organism consisting of several to many incompletely separated individuals, as in corals and hydroids
Origin of colony
Middle English colonie from Classical Latin colonia from colonus, farmer from colere, to cultivate: see cultcolony
noun
pl. col·o·nies- a. A group of emigrants or their descendants who settle in a distant territory but remain subject to or closely associated with the parent country.b. A territory thus settled.
- A region politically controlled by a distant country; a dependency.
- a. A group of people with the same interests or ethnic origin concentrated in a particular area: the American colony in Paris.b. The area occupied by such a group.
- Colonies The British colonies that became the original 13 states of the United States.
- A group of people who have been institutionalized in a relatively remote area: an island penal colony.
- A group of the same kind of animals, plants, or one-celled organisms living or growing together.
- A visible growth of microorganisms, usually in a solid or semisolid nutrient medium.
Origin of colony
Middle English colonie from Latin colōnia from colōnus settler from colere to cultivate ; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots.colony
Noun
(plural colonies)
- A settlement of emigrants who move to a new place, but remain culturally tied to their original place of origin
- Region or governmental unit created by another country and generally ruled by another country.
- A group of people with the same interests or ethnic origin concentrated in a particular geographic area
- A group of organisms of same or different species living together in close association.
- A collective noun for rabbits.
Origin
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)”).
