colony

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.