colony - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

A colony is a group of people who settle in a new place but keep ties to their homeland. The people who founded the United States first came to America to live as part of a British colony.

Colony comes from the Latin colonia, meaning "settled land, farm." Colony can also mean "a group of people who've gathered to live near each other and share the same interest." An artists' colony would be a place where everyone's an artist, while a Dunkin' Donuts colony would be full of coffee lovers. The same rules apply to the animal kingdom — an ant colony has a shared interest in ruining your picnic.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: colony

1	n	a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together
2	n	a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated
3	n	a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: colony

1

n a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together

Type of:: biological group
a group of plants or animals

n (microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell

Type of:: animal group
a group of animals

2

n a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated

“a nudist colony”

“an artists' colony”

Type of:: place, property
any area set aside for a particular purpose

3

n a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country

Synonyms:: dependency

Examples:: Cayman Islands
a British colony in the Caribbean to the northwest of Jamaica; an international banking center; New Netherland
a Dutch colony in North America along the Hudson and lower Delaware rivers although the colony centered in New Amsterdam; annexed by the English in 1664

Types:: Crown Colony
a British colony controlled by the British Crown, represented by a governor

Type of:: geographic area, geographic region, geographical area, geographical region
a demarcated area of the Earth

n a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government

“the American colony in Paris”

Synonyms:: settlement

Examples:: show 4 examples...; hide 4 examples...; Demerara
a former Dutch colony in South America; now a part of Guyana; Rock of Gibraltar
location of a colony of the United Kingdom on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain; strategically important because it can control the entrance of ships into the Mediterranean; one of the Pillars of Hercules; Plymouth Colony
colony formed by the Pilgrims when they arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620; it was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691; New Amsterdam
a settlement established by the Dutch near the mouth of Hudson River and the southern end of Manhattan Island; annexed by the English in 1664 and renamed New York

Types:: frontier settlement, outpost
a settlement on the frontier of civilization; Plantation
a newly established colony (especially in the colonization of North America); proprietary colony
a colony given to a proprietor to govern (in 17th century)

Type of:: body
a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity