COLONY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Colony mean? 

• COLONY (noun)
  The noun COLONY has 6 senses:

1. 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

2. a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together

3. one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States

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

5. a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country

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

  Familiarity information: COLONY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLONY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

colony; settlement

Context example:

the American colony in Paris

Hypernyms ("colony" is a kind of...):

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

Meronyms (members of "colony"):

colonial (a resident of a colony)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colony"):

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))

frontier settlement; outpost (a settlement on the frontier of civilization)

Instance hyponyms:

Demerara (a former Dutch colony in South America; now a part of Guyana)

Calpe; Gibraltar; 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)

Derivation:

colonial (of or relating to or characteristic of or inhabiting a colony)

colonise (settle as colonists or establish a colony (in))

colonise (settle as a colony; of countries in the developing world)

colonist (a person who settles in a new colony or moves into new country)

colonize (settle as colonists or establish a colony (in))

colonize (settle as a colony; of countries in the developing world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A group of organisms of the same type living or growing together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("colony" is a kind of...):

biological group (a group of plants or animals)

Meronyms (parts of "colony"):

caste (in some social insects (such as ants) a physically distinct individual or group of individuals specialized to perform certain functions in the colony)

Derivation:

colonial (of animals who live in colonies, such as ants)

Sense 3

Meaning:

One of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("Colony" is a kind of...):

geographic area; geographic region; geographical area; geographical region (a demarcated area of the Earth)

Instance hyponyms:

Virginia; South Carolina; Rhode Island; Pennsylvania; North Carolina; New York; New Jersey; New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Massachusetts Bay Colony; Maryland; Georgia; Delaware; Connecticut (one of the British colonies that formed the United States)

Holonyms ("Colony" is a part of...):

America; the States; U.S.; U.S.A.; United States; United States of America; US; USA (North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776)

Derivation:

colonist (a person who settles in a new colony or moves into new country)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

an artists' colony

Hypernyms ("colony" is a kind of...):

place; property (any area set aside for a particular purpose)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A geographical area politically controlled by a distant country

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

colony; dependency

Hypernyms ("colony" is a kind of...):

geographic area; geographic region; geographical area; geographical region (a demarcated area of the Earth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "colony"):

Crown Colony (a British colony controlled by the British Crown, represented by a governor)

Instance hyponyms:

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)

Derivation:

colonial (of or relating to or characteristic of or inhabiting a colony)

colonist (a person who settles in a new colony or moves into new country)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("colony" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Domain category:

microbiology (the branch of biology that studies microorganisms and their effects on humans)

 Context examples 

An aerosol inhalation formulation containing a yeast-derived glycosylated recombinant form of human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) with potential immunostimulating activity.

(Aerosol Sargramostim, NCI Thesaurus)

A small, infected wound can kill an entire colony.

(Plastic debris linked to coral disease, death, SciDev.Net)

A monoclonal antibody directed against colony stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Anti-CSF1R Monoclonal Antibody IMC-CS4, NCI Thesaurus)

A lethally irradiated, autologous colorectal cancer vaccine consisting of patient-specific colorectal cancer cells genetically modified to secrete the cytokine granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), with potential immunostimulating and antineoplastic activities.

(Autologous GM-CSF-secreting Lethally Irradiated Colorectal Cancer Cell Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of measurement of viable bacterial numbers equal to 10E9 colony forming units.

(Billion Colony Forming Units, NCI Thesaurus)

Autologous tumor cells transfected with a plasmid expressing recombinant human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) and bifunctional short hairpin RNA (bi-shRNA) against furin, with potential immunostimulatory and antineoplastic activities.

(bi-shRNA-Furin/GM-CSF-Expressing Autologous Tumor Cell Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

Further research will be needed to determine the agent’s precise mechanisms of toxicity and to assess its impact on humans, as well as on honeybee colonies and other beneficial insects.

(Novel insecticide blocks mosquitoes’ ability to urinate, NIH)

This may mean early shifts in worker microbiota could be used as a warning indicator for colony dwindling and/or failure.

(Species Shifts in the Honey Bee Microbiome Differ with Age and Hive Role, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

From the Americas, the disease spread further, to Africa and back into the Indian subcontinent – almost all places that were, at the time, European colonies.

(The curious tale of the cancer ‘parasite’ that sailed the seas, University of Cambridge)

While the other colonies in the region have bounced back, the one on Pig Island continues to decline, stumping scientists.

(Study: World's Largest King Penguin Colony Declines Sharply, VOA)