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"
a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together
"The scientist observed that a single ant colony could number in the thousands."
one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States
"The Declaration of Independence was written to declare freedom from Great Britain for all thirteen colonies."
a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated
"a nudist colony"
"an artists' colony"
a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country
"The British colony eventually gained independence from its ruling empire."
(microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell
"A scientist examined each colony on the petri dish to determine if it had originated from a single bacterial cell."
A governmental unit created on land of another country owned by colonists from a country.
"The British established a new colony in North America where families could own their own farms and govern themselves under royal laws."
In plain English: A colony is a group of people who live far away from their home country but are still controlled by it, or any small community where animals and plants grow together on just one plant or surface.
"The ants quickly built their colony in an old hollow log near our garden shed."
Usage: Use this word to describe a territory settled and governed by people from another nation, such as the British colonies in North America before independence. It is often confused with "colony" meaning an insect nest or bacterial culture, but those are distinct biological contexts unrelated to human settlement.
The word colony comes from the Latin term for a settlement established by farmers who cultivated new land. It entered English through Middle French as colone before settling into its current form in the 14th century.