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n. pl. col·o·nies 1. a. A group of emigrants or their descendants who settle in a distant territory but remain subject to or closely associated with the parent country. b. A territory thus settled. 2. A region politically controlled by a distant country; a dependency. 3. a. A group of people with the same interests or ethnic origin concentrated in a particular area: the American colony in Paris. b. The area occupied by such a group. 4. Colonies The British colonies that became the original 13 states of the United States. 5. A group of people who have been institutionalized in a relatively remote area: an island penal colony. 6. A group of the same kind of animals, plants, or one-celled organisms living or growing together. 7. A visible growth of microorganisms, usually in a solid or semisolid nutrient medium. [Middle English colonie, from Latin colōnia, from colōnus, settler, from colere, to cultivate; see kwel-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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