Colony

A colony is a piece of land controlled by another country. The metropolitan state is the country that owns the colony. The phrase dependent territory is now used instead of colony. Colony can also refer to a commune or a currently hypothetical human settlement in the sea (ocean colony) or outer space (space colony).

A country that has many colonies is often called an empire. A colonist is a person from the metropolitan state who lives in a colony.

Colonial means having to do with a colony. Colonial land is land that belongs to the colony. A colonist is sometimes called a colonial. The philosophy of having colonies is called colonialism. There must be many people to start a colony. There are many colonies, or countries that were once colonies, in the world. Most countries that were once colonies of Britain are part of the British Commonwealth.