What does colocated mean?
"Colocated" describes things — most often people, teams, equipment, or servers — that are physically situated together in the same place. In everyday business language, saying that two departments are colocated means they share an office or workspace, usually with the implication that proximity improves communication and collaboration. In computing, the word has a more technical sense: colocated servers are machines housed in a shared facility, typically a commercial data center where companies rent space for their own hardware rather than operating their own premises. Derived from the Latin "locus" (place), via the verb "colocate" formed with the prefix "co-" (together), the term carries a neutral, professional tone and appears frequently in corporate, IT, and organizational writing. Its usefulness lies in capturing a single idea — deliberate physical togetherness — that would otherwise require a longer phrase such as "housed in the same location."
Past tense and past participle of "colocate": to place or be placed together in the same location.
"The company colocated its sales and marketing divisions last year."
Situated together in the same place; especially (of servers or hardware) hosted in a shared facility.
"Colocated infrastructure gave them lower latency between systems."
In tech jargon, whether your servers are "colocated" can mean the difference between a fast app and a slow one — it's a Latin root doing heavy lifting in modern data centers.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of colocated
"Colocated" comes from the verb "colocate," formed in English from the prefix "co-" (from Latin "cum," meaning "together") combined with "locate," which derives from the Latin "locare" ("to place"), itself rooted in "locus" ("place"). It shares this root with words such as "location," "local," "allocate," and "dislocate." The term gained prominence in the twentieth century, particularly in military, business, and later computing contexts.
Related word forms
How colocated is actually used
Common in business and technology registers; often written with a hyphen ("co-located") in British English, while American usage increasingly favors the unhyphenated form. The noun form is "colocation" (or "colo" informally in IT).
Easily confused with colocated
"Located" simply means placed somewhere, while "colocated" specifically means two or more things are placed together at the same site.