colony

noun (plural colonies)

• 1a country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.
• a group of people living in colony, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors.
• (the Colonies)chiefly British term for Thirteen Colonies.
• (the colonies) all the foreign countries or areas formerly under British political control.

• 2a group of people of one nationality or ethnic group living in a foreign city or country:the British colony in New York
• a place where a group of people with similar interests live together:an artists' 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.