plural colonies
1
: an area over which a foreign nation or state extends or maintains control
a former colony
"British America" in 1776 signified not only the thirteen colonies and [the historical region called] the Floridas, but also Canada, Nova Scotia, and Britain's Caribbean colonies …—
Linda Colley
also
: a group of people who establish residence in that area and who retain ties with the parent state
members of Plymouth colony
2
: a group of people who settle together in a new place
… building an ecosystem from scratch on Mars that can provide food, water and oxygen to support a colony is no small task.—Eric Mack
also
: the land or buildings used by such a group
… suggested … the possibility that crops grown inside the [theoretical Mars] colony would produce suffocating levels of oxygen. —Scott Dance
3
: a distinguishable localized population of a species or type of organism
a colony of termites/ants
The birds [black skimmers] generally nest in colonies along beaches, with the largest colony in Florida residing on Marco Island.—Karl Schneider
4
a
: a circumscribed mass of microorganisms usually growing in or on a solid medium
colonies of bacteria
5
: a group of individuals or things with common characteristics or interests living in close association
an artist colony
a nudist colony
also
: the land or buildings used by such a group
6
: a group of persons institutionalized away from others
a leper colony
a penal colony
also
: the land or buildings used by such a group
Examples of colony in a Sentence
Massachusetts was one of the original 13 British colonies that later became the United States.
a former French colony in Africa
Recent Examples on the Web
Social insect colonies are a great place for an epidemic to spread, according to Neil Tsutsui, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the research.
—Arundathi Nair, NPR, 7 Jan. 2026
Recovering lost cultural history Malawi was a British colony when Hora 1 was first excavated in 1950, a time when archaeology seemed more like treasure hunting than science, Thompson said.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 6 Jan. 2026
Greenland holds strategic importance Greenland had been a colony of the Danish kingdom for hundreds of years, becoming an integral part in 1953.
—Stefanie Dazio, Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 2026
Greenland had been a colony of the Danish kingdom for hundreds of years, becoming an integral part in 1953.
—Claudia Ciobanu, Fortune, 6 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for colony
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Cite this Entry
“Colony.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colony. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Kids Definition
colony
noun
col·o·ny
ˈkäl-ə-nē 
plural colonies
1
a
: a distant territory under the control of a foreign nation
b
: a group of people who settle in that territory and retain ties with their original homeland
2
: a group of people who settle in a new place
3
a
: a population of plants or animals in a particular place that belong to one species
b
: a mass of microbes usually growing in or on a solid food source (as agar)
4
: a group of people with common qualities or interests living in close association
an artist colony
Medical Definition
colony
noun
col·o·ny
ˈkäl-ə-nē
plural colonies
: a circumscribed mass of microorganisms usually growing in or on a solid medium
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