postcolonial

adjective

post·​co·​lo·​nial ˌpōst-kə-ˈlō-nē-əl How to pronounce postcolonial (audio)
-nyəl
: of, relating to, or being a time after colonialism
postcolonial America
Carter was the first American president to take seriously the entire postcolonial era that has remade the globe since World War II.Garry Wills

Examples of postcolonial in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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This book shaped my understanding and use of folklore as a space of critical fabulation and a tool to examine and relay history through a postcolonial lens. Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026 Despite its name, the 13th arrondissement is home to many Southeast Asian communities—particularly Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian—who arrived during postcolonial immigration in the 1970s. Angela Lian, Travel + Leisure, 10 Jan. 2026 Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni both confronted, in different brutal ways, the challenges of governing a postcolonial nation. Helen Epstein, The New York Review of Books, 25 Dec. 2025 Land distribution is relatively egalitarian there compared with other regions—South Africa notwithstanding—which is a result of unique postcolonial circumstances. Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for postcolonial

Word History

First Known Use

1883, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of postcolonial was in 1883

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Cite this Entry

“Postcolonial.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/postcolonial. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.

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