postcolonial

adjective

post·​co·​lo·​nial ˌpōst-kə-ˈlō-nē-əl 

-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

The idea that Heathcliff might be of African descent first entered academic discussion in the 1950s and gained momentum as postcolonial studies became more popular in the ’80s and ’90s. —Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 10 Feb. 2026

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

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

Word History

First Known Use

1883, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for postcolonial

• baronial
• colonial
• anticolonial
• intercolonial
• neocolonial
• antimonial
• ceremonial
• matrimonial
• precolonial
• testimonial