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# colony

noun (a colony, colonies)

«colony» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A group of animals or plants of one kind that live together: a colony of ants, a bat colony. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#m1)
2. A country or area ruled by another, usually faraway, country: the thirteen American colonies. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#m2)
3. A group of people living together in a new place, far from their home country. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#m3)
4. (science) A group of bacteria or mould growing together on a dish. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#m4)

### In the lessons

In science lessons ants, bees, penguins and seals live in colonies; bacteria grow in colonies on agar plates. In history lessons Britain, France and Spain had colonies in America, Africa, Asia and Australia, and many later became independent. Phrases: an ant colony, a seal colony, a former colony, establish a colony.

### Examples

- A colony of ants can have thousands of workers. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x1)
- We saw a seal colony on the rocks. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x2)
- The thirteen colonies became the United States. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x3)
- Australia was once a British colony. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x4)
- A bacteria colony grew on the dish in the lab. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x5)
- Penguins nest in huge colonies. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x6)
- The Cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#x7)

### Note

Plural colonies (y to ies). Related: colonise, colonist, colonial. In history, colonies often took land from the people already living there; this caused great harm.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «colony» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«colony» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/colony.html) on Mova free.