colonist

colonist — noun

1. A person who moves from one country to a new area — often one that their home go

1.nounB2
Definition

A person who moves from one country to a new area — often one that their home government claims or controls — to build a home and live there, usually as part of a larger group of arriving people.

Example

Portuguese colonists built a small church on the hill where the village now stands.

pattern: nationality + colonists as subject

The early colonists struggled to grow crops because the soil was very different from what they knew in Europe.

collocation: early colonists; reason clause with because

Common collocations
  • early colonist
  • European colonist
  • first colonist
  • white colonist
  • British / French / Spanish colonist
Synonyms
  • settler

    More neutral; can describe anyone who moves to a new, unpopulated area, not necessarily within a colonial system.

  • pioneer

    Focuses on being among the first to explore or develop a new place, often with a sense of adventure.

  • colonizer

    Emphasizes the act of taking control of land; often carries a stronger political or critical tone.

Antonyms
  • native

    A person who was already living in the land before the colonists arrived.

Usage Note

Often paired with a nationality adjective (British, French, Spanish) to show which country the colonists came from. Frequently appears in historical writing about the 16th–19th centuries.

Common Mistakes

The colonist government passed new trade laws.
The colonial government passed new trade laws.
Colonist is a noun; colonial is the adjective form used before nouns.

Word family

  • colony
    nounB1
  • colonize
    verbB2
  • colonization
    nounC1
  • colonizer
    nounC1
  • colonial
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Colonist, settler, pioneer, and colonizer all describe people who move to a new place to live, but the words highlight different aspects. Colonist is the most historically specific term — it implies that the person's home government claimed or controlled the new area as a colony, and the person moved as part of that colonial project. Settler is broader and more neutral; anyone who moves into an underpopulated area to make a home there is a settler, with no necessary link to a colonial government. Pioneer adds a sense of being first or early, often with courage or adventure ("frontier pioneers"). Colonizer shifts the focus from settlement to control — it describes a person or group that takes political or economic charge of a land and its people, carrying a stronger political charge. In historical writing, colonist and settler are the most common; pioneer appears in US and Canadian frontier narratives; colonizer is more frequent in critical or postcolonial discussions.

settler ↗pioneer ↗colonizer

Common collocations

Nouns

  • colonist settlement
  • colonist community
  • colonist family

Phrases

  • early colonist
  • first colonist
  • European colonist
  • white colonist
  • group of colonists

Prepositions

  • colonist from [country]
  • colonist in [place]

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Colonist traces back to Latin colonus, meaning 'farmer, tiller, or settler'. From colonus came colonia ('settled land, colony'). The word passed into English via French coloniste in the early 1600s, around the time European empires were establishing overseas settlements in the Americas and Asia.