colonisation

colonisation — noun

1. The action of one country sending its citizens to settle in another country, tak

1.nounC1
Definition

The action of one country sending its citizens to settle in another country, taking over its land and ruling its people, often by force.

Example

The colonisation of Brazil by Portugal began in the early sixteenth century.

pattern: the colonisation of + place

Léa wrote her thesis on the long-term effects of European colonisation in West Africa.

Common collocations
  • European colonisation
  • British colonisation
  • the colonisation of
  • resist colonisation
  • era of colonisation
Synonyms
  • imperialism

    broader; covers political and economic dominance even without settlers

  • colonialism

    the system or ideology behind colonisation; colonisation is the act itself

  • occupation

    usually shorter and military; colonisation suggests long-term settling

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

the colonisation of + place

Usage Note

Usually uncountable and followed by 'of + country' to name the territory taken. The American spelling is 'colonization'. Often pairs with negative or critical evaluation; modern academic writing rarely uses it as a neutral term.

Common Mistakes

Britain made a colonisation in India.
Britain carried out the colonisation of India.
this noun pairs with verbs like 'carry out', 'begin', or 'resist', not with the verb 'make'.

2. The process by which animals, plants, or tiny living things move into a new plac

2.nounC2
Definition

The process by which animals, plants, or tiny living things move into a new place and begin to live, grow, and multiply there.

Example

Soraya studied the rapid colonisation of the lava field by hardy pioneer plants.

pattern: colonisation of + habitat

Bacterial colonisation of the wound had to be controlled before surgery could continue.

domain: medicine; collocation: bacterial colonisation

Common collocations
  • bacterial colonisation
  • fungal colonisation
  • plant colonisation
  • colonisation of habitat
  • rapid colonisation
Synonyms
  • infestation

    negative; suggests harmful or unwanted organisms

  • settlement

    more general; less common in biology

Antonyms
  • extinction

    the disappearance of a species from an area

  • eradication

    deliberate removal of organisms from a place

Grammar Patterns

colonisation of + habitat

Usage Note

Always uncountable. Common in ecology and microbiology, where the subject is usually 'bacterial', 'fungal', 'plant', or 'animal' colonisation. Distinguish from sense 1 by what is doing the settling: humans → sense 1; non-humans → sense 2.

Common Mistakes

The bacterium colonisation grew quickly.
The bacterial colonisation grew quickly.
use the adjective form ('bacterial', 'fungal') before this noun, not the bare noun.

Word family

  • colonise
    verbC1
  • coloniser
    nounC1
  • colony
    nounB2
  • colonial
    adjectiveB2
  • decolonisation
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four words all describe one country's power over another, but they sit at different layers. 'Colonisation' is the concrete act: the actual sending of settlers and the seizing of land, often dated to specific years and places. 'Colonialism' is the wider system and ideology that justifies and supports this act over decades. 'Imperialism' is broader still: it covers any political, military, or economic dominance over another country, even without permanent settlers — financial control alone can count. 'Occupation' is the shortest in time and most military: it usually means soldiers holding a territory after a war, with no plan to settle. So one might say, 'The colonisation of Algeria began in 1830 and led to over a century of French colonialism, part of a wider age of European imperialism that often started with simple military occupation.'

colonisation ↗colonialismimperialismoccupation ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • European colonisation
  • British colonisation
  • bacterial colonisation
  • fungal colonisation
  • plant colonisation

Adverbs

  • rapid colonisation
  • early colonisation
  • successful colonisation

Phrases

  • era of colonisation
  • process of colonisation
  • resist colonisation

Prepositions

  • colonisation of
  • colonisation by

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

British spelling of 'colonization', formed from the verb 'colonise' plus the noun ending '-ation'. The verb traces back through French 'coloniser' to Latin 'colonia' (a settlement of farmers), itself from 'colere' (to till the soil). The political sense was firmly established in English by the 17th century during European overseas expansion; the biological sense, describing organisms settling new habitats, developed in 19th-century scientific writing.