colonizer

American  

[kol-uh-nahy-zer] / ˈkɒl əˌnaɪ zər /

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of colonizer

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

Example Sentences

If Greenland was to break from its Danish colonizer, it would become, five centuries after Columbus, the only independent nation in the Western Hemisphere whose governing language remained that of its pre-European ancestors.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

President Idriss Déby, who was fatally wounded on the battlefield in 2021, tamped down multiple rebellions during his 30-year reign, sometimes with the support of Chad’s former colonizer, France.

From Washington Post • Apr. 23, 2023

Colonial overtones were hard to escape in the match between another North African nation, Tunisia, and France, in which a former colony defeated its former colonizer, a favorite to win the tournament.

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2022

For Meztli Projects, the day wasn’t just about the colonizer coming down; it was about creating a space for Native and Indigenous community members to come together.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2022

There will always be, in emerging nations, an enduring attraction to the ways of the colonizer — I myself was not immune to it.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

• ruler