From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcolonycol‧o‧ny /ˈkɒləni $ ˈkɑː-/ ●●○ noun (plural colonies) [countable] 1 COUNTRY/NATIONa country or area that is under the political control of a more powerful country, usually one that is far away → colonial, colonize Algeria was formerly a French colony. → crown colony2 PGSHone of the 13 areas of land on the east coast of North America that later became the United States3 GROUP OF PEOPLEa group of people who are similar in some way and who live together, or the place where they live an artists’ colony a leper colony4 GROUP OF PEOPLEa group of animals or plants of the same type that are living or growing together a seal colony breeding colonies of rare birds
Examples from the Corpus
colony• Others, like sponges, consisted of a colony of cells with a porous skeleton.• The United States was once a colony of Great Britain.• an ant colony• an artists' colony on the East Coast• Fighting is continuing in the former Belgian colony.• In 1980, the former British colony of Rhodesia gained independence as the Republic of Zimbabwe.• Bishop had known what was happening: the Guild of Adjudicators was famed and feared in equal measure amongst the Earth colonies.• Today Pine Gap looks like an advance moon colony in the Sea of Tranquillity.• By the mid 1960s most colonies had won their independence and by the mid 1970s the world was virtually free of colonies.• a nudist colony• He could throw his lot in with the Lord General, and perhaps become a governor of one of the colony worlds.• Many people who came to the colonies were escaping religious persecution.• In Mary Barton the working-class heroine and her husband go off to the colonies to start a new life.• When the colony was discovered eighteen years later, ten of the women had survived and only one of the men.Origin colony (1300-1400) Old French colonie, from Latin colonia, from colonus “farmer, someone who develops a new place”, from colere “to prepare land for crops” 