col|o|ny

col|o|ny «KOL uh nee», noun, plural -nies.

1. a) a group of people who leave their own country and go to settle in another land, but who still remain citizens of their own country: »

The Pilgrim colony came from England to America in 1620.

b) the settlement made by such a group of people: »

The Pilgrims founded a colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

2. a territory distant from the country that governs it: »

Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997.

SYNONYM(S): possession, dependency, dominion.

3. Figurative. a) a group of people from one country or occupation living in a certain part of a city: »

the Italian colony in Boston. There is a colony of artists in Paris.

b) the district in which such a group lives: »

Greenwich Village in New York is an artists' colony.

4. a) Biology. a group of animals or plants of the same kind, living or growing together: »

We found two colonies of ants under the steps. Coral grows in colonies.

b) Bacteriology. a mass of microorganisms arising from a single cell, living on or in a solid or partially solid medium: »

The petri dish is left in a warm incubator for 24 hours, whereupon numerous bacterial colonies can be seen without magnification (Fred W. Emerson).

╂[< Latin colōnia farm, settlement < colōnus cultivator, settler < colere cultivate, inhabit]