Meaning & use
colonization
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Meanings
noununcountable
The process by which one country takes control of another territory and sends its people to live there.
Grammar: Used without an article: the colonization of Africa.
Patterns
- the colonization of somewhere
- colonization by somebody
The colonization of the Americas changed millions of lives.
Historians study the effects of colonization on local cultures.
Spanish colonization began in the early sixteenth century.
noununcountablebiology
The way in which plants, animals or microbes spread to and settle in a new place or body.
Grammar: Used in biology and medicine: bacterial colonization.
Patterns
- colonization of something by something
The colonization of the island by seabirds took many years.
Bacterial colonization of the gut starts soon after birth.
Moss spread quickly after the colonization of the bare rock.
Common combinations
- European colonization
- European colonization reshaped the continent.
- colonization of space
- Some writers imagine the colonization of space.
- bacterial colonization
- Doctors check for bacterial colonization in the lungs.
- resist colonization
- Many peoples fought to resist colonization.
- history of colonization
- She wrote a book on the history of colonization in Asia.
Synonyms and how they differ
- settlement
- Settlement focuses on people moving in and living in a place and can be peaceful, whereas colonization implies control by another power.
- occupation
- Occupation means taking control of a place by force, sometimes only for a short time, while colonization involves permanent settlement.
- conquest
- Conquest stresses military victory, while colonization describes the longer process of settling and ruling.
- imperialism
- Imperialism is the broader policy of extending a nation's power, and colonization is one of its methods.
Opposites
Word family
- colony noun
- a territory controlled by another country, or a group of living things in one place
- colonize verb
- to take control of a place and settle it, or to spread into a new habitat
- colonial adjective
- relating to a colony or colonialism
- colonist noun
- a person who settles in a colony
- decolonization noun
- the process by which colonies become independent
Commonly confused: colonization or colonialism?
colonization vs colonialism
Colonialism is the policy or system of ruling colonies, while colonization is the actual process of taking and settling land.
Practice
Which word names the policy of ruling colonies, as opposed to the process of settling them?
Choose one answer.
Colonialism is the policy or system of controlling colonies. Colonization is the process, decolonization is its reversal and colonist is a person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “colonization”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.