[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/colony.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / colony

[← C](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/C/)

# colony

«colony» in Mova's school dictionary: **A group of animals or plants of one kind that live…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a colony, colonies)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A group of animals or plants of one kind that live together: a colony of ants, a bat colony. [tree →](https://md.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://md.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://md.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://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/#m4)

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

### In the corpora

- [The penguins in Madagascar are four, but real penguins live in big colonies, sometimes of thousands.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/99-the-penguin-pool/17/)
- [Each chick has its own voice, and its parents recognise it among thousands of others in a noisy colony.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/129-madagascar-real-penguins-and-chimps/12/)
- [By midsummer the colony can grow from about 10,000 bees to 50,000 or more.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/344-honey-and-the-beekeepers-year/2/)
- [Sousliks are a main food for steppe eagles, imperial eagles and steppe polecats, so when souslik colonies disappear these hunters disappear too.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/373-ukraine-s-steppe-marmots-sousliks-great-bustards-and-askania-nova/13/)
- [In Europa Universalis 5 sugar is a valuable trade good from Caribbean colonies and grain is the plain good of many locations.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/26-food-and-farming-around-the-world/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «colony» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/colony/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.