colonizer

[ kol-uh-nahy-zer ]

noun

1. 1. a nation or government that claims a territory other than its own, forcibly taking control over the population and resources located in that territory and usually sending some of its own people to settle there:

      In the past, whole continents have been appropriated by colonizers such as Britain, Spain, France, and Portugal.

   2. any of the settlers who come from such a nation to live in or help control the territory their government has claimed:

      The Red River was the scene of a major historic battle between European colonizers and Canada’s Indigenous people.

   3. Often Disparaging and Offensive. a descendant of any of these settlers, or any person belonging to their culture and enjoying the advantages of the power structure set up by the colonizing nation.
2. a person who is among the first to settle in an area:

   The initial colonizers of the Arctic were thought to have descended from inhabitants of the forested south.

3. Biology. a species of plant or animal that moves or is transported to a new habitat and seeks to establish itself there:

   Ecologists are interested in why some species are successful colonizers while others are not.

4. Microbiology, Medicine/Medical. a microbe that multiplies in or on another organism, especially one that does so without causing disease or infection, such as certain bacteria in the gut or on the skin of humans.

Word History and Origins

Origin of colonizer¹

First recorded in 1720–30; colonize ( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

Even this process occurs on the colonizer’s terms.

From Los Angeles Times

Some, like beans, calabaza, cassava, cornmeal and scotch bonnet peppers, are indigenous to the islands and were being processed and consumed by the people living there when the colonizers arrived.

From Salon

“A lot of the history that we hear about it is told from the point of view of the colonizers,” DeJesus said.

From Los Angeles Times

Like the Spanish and Mexican colonizers before them, American settlers believed that God had decreed their right to California’s natural wealth, and that Indigenous people stood between them and boundless prosperity.

From Los Angeles Times

When Cauce learned the two images were not from UW, she wrote “reasonable people” would still believe that other statements on campus — like “kill colonizers” and “death to Zionists” are also antisemitic.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• ruler