colony

 
Pronunciation: /ˈkɒləni/

noun (plural colonies)

  • 1a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country and occupied by settlers from that country: Japanese forces overran the French colony of Indo-China
  • a group of people living in a colony, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors: the colony looked forward to fifty or more years of autonomy
  • (the colonies) all the foreign countries or areas formerly under British political control: many poachers were exiled to the colonies
  • (the colonies) the thirteen areas on the east coast of North America that gained independence from Britain and founded the United States of America.
  • 2a group of people of one nationality or race living in a foreign place: the British colony in New York
  • a place where a group of people with the same occupation or interest live together: a nudist colony
  • 3 Biology a community of animals or plants of one kind living close together or forming a physically connected structure: a colony of seals
  • a group of fungi or bacteria grown from a single spore or cell on a culture medium.

Origin:

late Middle English (denoting a settlement formed mainly of retired soldiers, acting as a garrison in newly conquered territory in the Roman Empire): from Latin colonia 'settlement, farm', from colonus 'settler, farmer', from colere 'cultivate'