Meaning & Definition of Colony in English

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

• "The american colony in paris"

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

• "A nudist colony"

• "An artists' colony"

5. A geographical area politically controlled by a distant country

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