colonization

noun

col·​o·​ni·​za·​tion ˌkä-lə-nə-ˈzā-shən 

variants also British colonisation

plural colonizations

1

: an act or instance of colonizing: such as

a

: the establishing of a colony (see colony sense 1) : subjugation of a people or area especially as an extension of state power

The news arrives at a time of debate over how museums should handle artifacts acquired through colonization and conquest.

—Isis Davis-Marks

"… in contrast to their earlier colonization of the Caribbean, the Spanish encountered highly urbanized civilizations in Mesoamerica and continually equated them with those of the Islamic and Greco-Roman Mediterranean."

—David Carballo

b

: migration to and settlement in an inhabited or uninhabited area

the colonization of space/Mars

c(1)

biology : the spread and development of an organism in a new area or habitat

The colonization of land by eukaryotes probably was facilitated by a partnership (symbiosis) between a photosynthesizing organism … and a fungus.

—Daniel S. Heckman et al.

(2)

medical : the presence and multiplication of a microorganism (such as a bacterium) in or on a host or an inanimate object or surface

It is important to reassess wounds frequently to determine if there is colonization of bacteria within the wound.

—Emergency Medicine Reports

Adhesion to the intestinal epithelial cells is considered as necessary for probiotic microorganisms to colonize the large intestine, and colonization is important for beneficial health effects such as modulation of the immune system …

—O. D. Amund

… they significantly reduced the rate of bacterial colonization of the devices from 30% to 9% and cut the rate of infection in patients from 4% to 0.

—Carol Potera

d

: the act or practice of appropriating something that one does not own or have a right to

… the pop culture discourse is more open to considering the fraught dynamic of Western colonization of music rooted in Africa than it's ever been.

—Matthew Ismael Ruiz

It's a strange objection from someone who rails against the growing blandness of New York—the chain stores and suburban sensibilities, the colonization by the rich, the boring, the feloniously ahistoric.

—Ginia Bellafante

2

: the state of being colonized : subjugation by a foreign power

"If I am fighting our struggle on Indigenous territories, then I must also understand and be in solidarity with Indigenous struggles against colonization. To imagine our freedom without first recognizing and fighting for Indigenous sovereignty is impossible."

—El Jones

colonizationist

ˌkä-lə-nə-ˈzā-sh(ə-)nist 

noun

also British colonisationist

plural colonizationists

Examples of colonization in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On this day in 1898: U.S. Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay, part of a war in Cuba that led to the end of Spanish colonization in the Americas that had begun the year after the voyage of Christopher Columbus. —The Arizona Republic, 10 June 2024

In roughly 335 years, about 100 of Australia’s unique plant and animal species have gone extinct, including the Christmas Island forest skink, and about 10 percent of the 320 land mammals known to have lived in Australia when European colonization began. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 5 June 2024

Once urban colonization has taken place, these same traits may prove beneficial because urban environments are constantly being fragmented into smaller sections by roads and new construction. —Lee Alan Dugatkin, Scientific American, 14 May 2024

Russia’s mission in this new order, the Kremlin promises, is to free other countries from U.S. cultural colonization and hegemony. —Maria Snegovaya, Foreign Affairs, 16 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1744, in the meaning defined at sense 1