recolonize

verb

re·​col·​o·​nize (ˌ)rē-ˈkä-lə-ˌnīz 

recolonized; recolonizing; recolonizes

transitive verb

: to colonize (a previously colonized region or habitat) again

At the end of the ice age some 10,000 years ago, reindeer were among the first animals to recolonize northern Scandinavia.

—Bryan Alexander

The half-century's colonization of Normandy in the fifteenth century had been followed by plans to recolonize Ireland from about 1520 onward, but tentative efforts to put those plans into effect after 1550 had met with little success.

—David B. Quinn

Examples of recolonize in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Within a year, the once-black areas became dark again as the microorganisms started recolonizing the sterile plots — far more quickly than usually occurs with the lichens and other microbes in biocrusts. —Zack Savitsky, Quanta Magazine, 12 July 2023

The latest example is particularly ironic: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to restore the Russian empire by recolonizing Ukraine has opened the door to a postimperial Europe. —Timothy Garton Ash, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2023

There are published studies demonstrating a rich diversity of plants and animals have recolonized the red forest like a wilderness preserve. —Monique Brouillette, Popular Mechanics, 6 July 2023

Though the tribe still requires the park’s permission to harvest traditional foods like the salmon that are recolonizing streams on their ancestral homeland, there have been small advances — such as reestablishment of the annual Huna Tlingit harvest of glaucous-winged gull eggs. —Lesley Evans Ogden, Discover Magazine, 7 Apr. 2023

Though the tribe still requires the park’s permission to harvest traditional foods like the salmon that are recolonizing streams on their ancestral homeland, there have been small advances—such as reestablishment of the annual Huna Tlingit harvest of glaucous-winged gull eggs. —Lesley Evans Ogden, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Apr. 2023

While mountain lion populations have expanded across most of the American West, wolves are still trying to recolonize parts of their historic range. —Rasha Aridi, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Jan. 2021

Industrial decay, environmental catastrophes and housing foreclosures can transform our urban landscape into a more inviting setting for nature to recolonize our space. —Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2012

Here in Kharkiv, most people appeared to think nothing of continuing to speak the language of the empire that was trying to recolonize them. —Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 22 Feb. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

circa 1765, in the meaning defined above