How to Use colony in a Sentence

colony

noun
Definition of colonynext
Synonyms for colonynext
  • Massachusetts was one of the original 13 British colonies that later became the United States.
  • Charles had been a fixture of the early days of the divorce colony in the 1890s.
    — April White, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 May 2022
  • These copies were distributed across the colonies, where local printers produced their own versions.
    — Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Jan. 2025
  • For the first time since our colony’s founding in 1663, the public’s right to the shore had been significantly curtailed.
    — Sean Lyness, BostonGlobe.com, 3 June 2022
  • After two years, the French commissioners of the colony announced that all enslaved people would be free and become French citizens.
    — New York Times, 20 May 2022
  • The British Indian Ocean Territory came to possess all the outward trappings of a colony.
    — Cullen Murphy, The Atlantic, 15 June 2022
  • The number of colony forming units (CFUs) is a measure of how many live, active cultures are in a probiotic supplement.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 May 2022
  • But as the colony of humans on the remote planet is on the verge of being torn apart by religious differences, the androids realize the challenge and danger of attempting to control humans' beliefs.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 3 June 2022
  • Even when a coral colony survives, the stress takes a toll.
    — Michael Robinson Chavez, Washington Post, 22 Nov. 2022
  • If that builds up in your bin, that too can wipe out your colony.
    — Megan Leonhardt, Fortune, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Inside the colony, there's more space and Griner will have to work eight hours a day.
    — Jason Duaine Hahn, Peoplemag, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Then the chicks will be ready to live with the colony and make their zoo debut in the habitat.
    — Brooke Baitinger, Sacramento Bee, 15 May 2024
  • The first thing to look for is the number of colony forming units or CFUs.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 15 Dec. 2022
  • For starters, both a queen and a king are needed to start a termite colony.
    — Elizabeth Preston, New York Times, 5 May 2023
  • The former British colony still pegs the value of its money to that of the US dollar.
    — Laura He, CNN, 13 June 2023
  • Inside, the colony looked like a train station at rush hour.
    — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Women in the colony are taught to vote and must decide on one of the three outcomes.
    — Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Jan. 2023
  • There, he’s put under arrest, and the colony’s men go to bail him out.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2023
  • Paris has had its troops in Mali, a former French colony, for nine years.
    — Fox News, 19 July 2022
  • In the absence of the rest of the colony’s men, who’ve left town to bail the rapists out of jail, the women must decide what comes next.
    — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 24 Jan. 2023
  • Dense colonies of aphids can be found along stems or on the undersides of leaves.
    — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2023
  • Griner had been sentenced to nine years and moved to a penal colony last month.
    — Wire Reports, oregonlive, 8 Dec. 2022
  • The movie is based on true events at a Mennonite colony in the 2000s, but it was filmed in the shadows of #MeToo.
    — Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 5 Dec. 2022
  • Green sweat bees Green sweat bees often nest in the ground or wood and live alone rather than in colonies.
    — Marina Johnson, Detroit Free Press, 4 May 2023
  • Penguins nesting on the fringes of the colony had longer, deeper sleeps than those in the middle.
    — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Nov. 2023
  • And that the rooftop would be closed to accommodate the rigging, so the bee colony would have to be moved.
    — Weike Wang, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Ants need to defend their colony, seek food and take care of offspring.
    — Discover Magazine, 13 Mar. 2023
  • The rest stood upon the forest floor, thick with mulch, moss, and ants from a nearby colony.
    — Eleanor Cummins, The New Republic, 14 Oct. 2022
  • The novel follows an astronaut crew assigned to launch the first colony on Mars.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 9 Jan. 2025
  • One of the few interesting things about it, with regard to the war, was that there was a prison colony nearby, from which the Wagner Group had recruited men.
    — Keith Gessen, The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'colony.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: