What does colonize mean?
To colonize is to take control of a territory or people by establishing settlements and asserting political dominance, usually from a distant home country. Historically, the word evokes the great age of European expansion from the fifteenth century onward, when powers such as Spain, Britain, and France colonized vast regions of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, frequently at devastating cost to indigenous populations. Because of this legacy, the term carries strong negative connotations in discussions of empire, exploitation, and decolonization. Beyond politics, colonize has productive scientific uses: biologists describe plants, animals, and microorganisms as colonizing new habitats, from bare volcanic rock to the human gut. The word can also be applied figuratively, as when critics say a company has colonized public discourse. Derived forms include colonization, colonizer, and colonial, all rooted in the Latin colonia, meaning a settlement or farm established by Roman citizens abroad.
To establish political control over a foreign territory or people by settling it and exercising sovereignty, often exploiting its resources and subordinating its inhabitants.
"France moved to colonize Algeria in the nineteenth century."
Frequently used in postcolonial studies and historical writing about empire.
(Of organisms) To move into and establish a population in a new habitat or environment.
"Bacteria quickly colonize any warm, nutrient-rich surface."
The same word we use for empires claiming distant continents now describes microbes colonizing your gut — and scientists even talk of colonizing Mars.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of colonize
Colonize derives from the Latin colonia, meaning a settled tract of land or agricultural estate, itself related to colonus, a farmer or tiller of soil. The word entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially via terms connected to Roman settlement practices, and took on its modern sense during the era of overseas expansion. Its cognates include colony, colonial, and colonist, all sharing the same Latin root.
Related word forms
How colonize is actually used
In historical and postcolonial contexts the word carries strongly negative connotations of exploitation and dispossession. In biology it is neutral, describing natural settlement by species. British spelling is "colonise" in many UK publications, though "colonize" with -z- is also widely used under Oxford spelling conventions.
Easily confused with colonize
"Colony" is the noun for a territory settled and ruled by a distant power, while "colonize" is the verb describing the act of establishing such control.