Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Colony |
ColonyNoun1. 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 animals of the same type living together. 3. One of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States. 4. (microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "colony" was first used: sometime around 1384. (references) |
Etymology: Colony \Col"o*ny\, noun; plural Colonies. [Latin colonia, from colonus farmer, from colere to cultivate, dwell: compare to French colonie. Compare to Culture.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Bible | Colony The city of Philippi was a Roman colony (Acts 16:12), i.e., a military settlement of Roman soldiers and citizens, planted there to keep in subjection a newly-conquered district. A colony was Rome in miniature, under Roman municipal law, but governed by military officers (praetors and lictors), not by proconsuls. It had an independent internal government, the jus Italicum; i.e., the privileges of Italian citizens. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: ColonySynonym: settlement (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Inhabitant | Garrison, crew; population; people; (mankind); colony, settlement; household; mir. |
Location | Plantation, colony, settlement, cantonment; colonization, domestication, situation; habitation; (abode); cohabitation; "a local habitation and a name"; endenization, naturalization. |
Prison | Noun: prison, prison house; jail, gaol, cage, coop, den, cell; stronghold, fortress, keep, donjon, dungeon, Bastille, oubliette, bridewell, house of correction, hulks, tollbooth, panopticon, penitentiary, guardroom, lockup, hold; round house, watch house, station house, sponging house; station; house of detention, black hole, pen, fold, pound; inclosure; isolation (exclusion); penal settlement, penal colony; bilboes, stocks, limbo, quod; calaboose, chauki, choky, thana; workhouse. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Its a leper colony there! (Seinfeld; writing credit: Andreas Lenze; Bea Schmidt) Being thrown out of a place like this is significantly better than being thrown out of a leper colony. (Victor/Victoria; writing credit: Blake Edwards; Hans Hoemburg) My colony was to be spared! (Battlestar Galactica; writing credit: Glen A. Larson) All we know is that there is still is no contact with the colony, and that a xenomorph may be involved. (Aliens; writing credit: James Cameron; David Giler) I thought you said the prison colony would be here. (Andromeda; writing credit: John Cranna) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Vietnam Colony (1994) Nudist Colony of the Dead (1991) | |
Song Titles | I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU (performing artist: New Colony 6 ) Things I'd Like to Say (performing artist: The New Colony Six) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The metastatic colony is the end result of a complicated multistep process. The tumor cells from a primary tumor invade local tissue and gain access to the venous circulation (intravasation). Circulating tumor cells, singly or in clumps, are transported to target organs where they lodge in the capillary bed. Thus arrested, these tumor cells penetrate the endothelial cell lining and the underlining basement membrane to exit the circulation (extravasation). They then grow as a metastatic colony, a development that requires new blood vessels (neovascularization). To complete this multistep process, the tumor cells must overcome the host's defenses. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | The nurse is instructing a black woman, a colon cancer patient and her husband on how to administer a subcutaneous injection of colony stimulating factor (CSF). CSF is used after chemotherapy to stimulate bone marrow production of white blood cells in order to prevent infection. Credit: Bill Branson (photographer). |
 | Illustration of young mold colony showing branching of hyphae. Credit: CDC. |  | B. anthracis Colony Characteristics: A. 2-5mm overnight at 35 degrees centigrade without carbon dioxide B. Non-hemolytic, non-pigmented, dry ground glass surface, edge irregular with comma projections, "Medusa Head". Credit: CDC. |
 | Emperor penguin colony at Cape Washington in the Ross Sea. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | An elkhorn coral colony. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |
 | A colony of boulder star coral. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | A Murre colony up close. Credit: Sanctuaries. |
 | Cormorants on Colony Rock, one is landing. Near Yaquina Head. Credit: BLM. |  | Cobble Beach and Colony Rock near Yaquina Head. Credit: BLM. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | If the debts are payable in some other currency they shall be paid or credited in the currency of the country concerned, whether an Allied or Associated Power, Colony, Protectorate, British Dominion or India, at the pre-war rate of exchange. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | There was some shadow of an attempt of this kind in the mode of celebrating the day on which the political year of the colony commenced. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | There are also medicines called colony stimulating factors that help increase your platelets. (references) | |
The bacteria multiply very slowly, only once every 24 hours, and take a month to form a colony. (references) | ||
A pilot trial of recombinant granulocyte colony stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) administered to patients during chemotherapy resulted in restoration of the neutrophil count and function and a decrease in severity of mucositis. (references) | ||
Business | Hernando Cortes conquered Mexico during the period 1519-21 and founded a Spanish colony that lasted nearly 300 years. (references) | |
Economic History | Canada | For more than a century, Canada was a French colony. (references) |
Seychelles | By 1963, political parties had developed in the Seychelles colony. (references) | |
Mauritius | It became a prosperous colony under the French East India Company. (references) | |
Human Rights | Russia | Along with seven masked members of his unit, Bromberg was suspected of beating inmates at the prison colony. (references) |
Panama | The prison population at the island prison colony, with a physical capacity of 300, was reduced to 89 inmates, compared with 114 in 2000; none are pretrial detainees. (references) | |
Russia | On September 11, procurators in Perm announced that they had brought charges of mistreating inmates against Special Forces Commander Sergey Bromberg, head of the strict regime prison colony at Chepets. (references) | |
Travel | Romania | This language, which uses the Latin alphabet and is a Romance language, evolved from the Latin used in the Roman colony of Dacia. (references) |
Korea | When doing business, Americans should be sensitive to Korea's historical relationship with Japan which made a virtual colony of the Korean peninsula. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TROGLODYTE, n. Specifically, a cave-dweller of the paleolithic period, after the Tree and before the Flat. A famous community of troglodytes dwelt with David in the Cave of Adullam. The colony consisted of "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented" -- in brief, all the Socialists of Judah. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Adams | 1797-1801 | All officers should have commissions, under the hand of the governor and seal of the colony. |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | This change can not fail to prove beneficial to the trade between the United States and that colony, and the advantages likely to flow from it may lead to greater relaxations in the colonial systems of other nations. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Colony" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.55% of the time. "Colony" is used about 1,104 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.55% | 1,088 | 6,934 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.45% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,104 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "colony" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Colony | Last name | 100 | 74,061 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| USA | Colony Bankcorp, Inc. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
1. Colony, AL (town, FIPS 16684) 2. Colony, KS (city, FIPS 14950) 3. Colony, OK (town, FIPS 16400) |
Expressions using "colony": Colony counter ♦ colony of bacteria ♦ colony of bees ♦ crown colony ♦ detention colony ♦ First Colony ♦ Iowa Colony ♦ Jupiter Inlet Colony ♦ Key Colony Beach ♦ leper colony ♦ Massachusetts Bay Colony ♦ nudist colony ♦ old Colony ♦ penal colony ♦ Plymouth Colony ♦ proprietary colony ♦ Tennessee Colony ♦ The Colony. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "colony": Colony-Forming, Colony-Forming Units Assay, colony-sticks, Colony-Stimulating, Colony-Stimulating, colony-stimulating factors. | |
Ending with "colony": macrophage-colony, micro-colony, quasi-colony, semi-colony, super-colony. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
nudist colony | 1,103 | the colony hotel | 69 |
the colony texas | 461 | ford colony | 67 |
13 colony | 279 | colony middle | 65 |
swiss colony | 266 | colony memorial old | 61 |
amana colony | 236 | colony england new | 61 |
colony | 220 | nude colony | 57 |
the lost colony | 179 | 13 colony map | 56 |
13 colony original | 123 | key colony beach | 54 |
colony home | 114 | colony southern | 53 |
dark colony | 105 | colony game | 48 |
sea colony | 105 | first colony life | 46 |
thirteen colony | 102 | original thirteen colony | 46 |
nudist colony photo | 99 | old colony | 46 |
the colony | 91 | nudest colony | 44 |
colony first mall | 89 | colony free nudist picture | 43 |
nudist colony pic | 83 | colony high school | 42 |
the colony beach resort | 83 | city of the colony | 40 |
first colony | 75 | colony beach | 39 |
nudist colony picture | 74 | space colony | 39 |
first colony life insurance | 71 | beach bethany colony sea | 39 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "colony"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaans | kolonie (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | koloni (culture, settlement), grup (array, batch, body, bracket, camp, clutch, cohort, confederate, coterie, crowd, gang, group, groupment, lot, parcel, party, phalanx, platoon, squad, tally, team, troop, unit). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مستعمرة (colonization, habitation, settlement), مجموعة الحيوانات, جماعة منعزلة, جماعة من المهاجريين, جالية (ingathering). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | колония (community, dependency, plantation, settlement, stock), група заселници. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 殖民地 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | osada (hamlet, plantation, settlement), kolonie (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | koloni (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | kolonie (settlement), volksplanting (settlement), nederzetting (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | kolonio (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | فام , مهاجرنشین , ملون کردن , مستملکات , مستعمره , تغییررنگ دادن (Discolor, Discolour), جرگه , رنگ کردن (Dye, Paint, Taint), رنگ (Complexion, Dye, Grain, Hue, Indigo, Paint, Shade, Speckle, Tint, Tune), بشره (Complexion, Cuticle, Epidermis). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | yhdyskunta (community), kolonia (assembly), kennonrakentajakunta (nurse(for queen rearing)). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | colonie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frisian | koloanje (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | kolonie (camp, Rookery, settlement), Siedlung (estate, housing scheme, scheme, settlement, smallholding). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | αποικία (cпlпny, settlement), παροικία (community). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מושב" (settlement, village). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | kolónia, gyarmat (dependency, plantation, settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | jajahan (district, subjugated territory). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | colonia (Cologne, nest, settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 群" , 植民地 , コロナ"電 (colon, colonial, Colorado, Colorado Springs, coloratura, Columbia, corona discharge, turd). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | しょくみ"ち, ぐ"たい (army, troops), コロニー . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 식민지 (Colonies). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Malay | koloni (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | possan (band, band of people, bevy, bunch, clique, covey, detachment, ensemble, flock, formation of troops, gaggle, group, grouping, levy, party, posse, pride of lions, squad, swarm). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | kolonia (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | olonycay osada (settlement), kolonia (settlement). (various references) colónia (Cologne), emigrantes, agrupamento (grouping, troop). (various references) colonie (dependency, Eau de cologne, Rookery, settlement), înjghebare (gathering, starting). (various references) колония (plantation, settlement). (various references) naselje (estate, house-warming, project, pueblo, settlement), kolonija. (various references) colonia (Cologne, development, plantation, settlement, settling, suburb). (various references) koloni (community, plantation, settlement). (various references) topluluk (army, cohort, community, company, corps, coterie, crowd, ensemble, gathering, group, herd, hive, knot, party, push, set, society, troop), sömürgede halkı, sömürge (colonial, dependency, plantation), koloni (dependency). (various references) kolonoяa (r). (various references) установа спеціального призначення, колонія (plantation, village), поселення (habitation, location, settlement). (various references) cụm (bunch, cluster, flock, knot), thuộc địa kiều dân, khu kiều dân, đ n (cluster, grist, swarm, troop). (various references) trefedigaeth (settlement), gwladychfa (settlement), gwladfa (settlement). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | colonia, coloniam. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "colony": semicolony, subcolony. (additional references) | |
| |
"Colony" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: calon, celcon, Cholbon, cholonic, cloogy, cluny, cocody, coley, coligny, Collon, collone, collonic, Collooney, colmon, colny, Cologny, cology, colonc, colone, coloni, colonie, colono, colonys, Colpoy, Colron, Conoly, Coolaney, cooni, Coonly, coony, Coplon, Coslany, Cosloy, couldni, couldny, Coulon, Coxon, cylon, Kokonya, Kolodny, kolon, kupony, Loloni, Molony, sceolon. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "colony" (pronounced kÄ"lunē) |
| 4 | -l u n ē | felony. |
| 3 | -u n ē | aborigine, accompany, agony, balcony, botany, cacophony, company, destiny, disharmony, ebony, Epiphany, gluttony, harmony, hegemony, hominy, homogeny, intercompany, intracompany, irony, larceny, litany, mahogany, misogyny, monotony, mutiny, neoteny, ontogeny, paleobotany, Peony, phylogeny, polygyny, polyphony, progeny, Saxony, scrutiny, simony, Symphony, Tiffany, tyranny. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-l-n-o-o-y" | |
-1 letter: colon, cooly, loony. | |
-2 letters: clon, cloy, coly, cony, cool, coon, loco, loon, nolo, only. | |
-3 letters: col, con, coo, coy, loo, noo, yon. | |
-4 letters: lo, no, on, oy, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-l-n-o-o-y" | |
+2 letters: commonly, cooingly, oncology. | |
+3 letters: colocynth, colonelcy, colophony, condyloid, condyloma, cotyledon, cyclotron, iconology, myoclonic, myoclonus, necrology, nocuously, subcolony. | |
+4 letters: canorously, chronology, colocynths, colonially, commonalty, conchology, conclusory, condylomas, confocally, conjointly, cotyledons, craniology, cyclotrons, gynecology, iconolatry, monocyclic, oceanology, polyclonal, polyphonic, semicolony, synecology, technology, uncommonly. | |
+5 letters: campanology, chylomicron, coemploying, commonality, condolatory, condylomata, conformably, congruously, consciously, consolatory, consolingly, consonantly, counterploy, criminology, cycloolefin, dicotyledon, gynaecology, gynecologic, innocuously, lichenology, mesocyclone, monocrystal, monocularly, monodically, moronically, myoclonuses, nonsymbolic, octagonally, palynologic, rancorously, toponymical, volcanology, vulcanology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Names: Frequency 14. Names: Company Usage 15. Cities 16. Expressions | 17. Expressions: Internet 18. Translations: Modern 19. Translations: Ancient 20. Derivations | 21. Rhymes 22. Anagrams 23. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
