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

Philosophical concepts used to address these topics have been implicitly determined by the colonizer through the exaltation of certain thinkers and the obscuring of others.

From Los Angeles Times

All the poor decisions that Sol and the Jedi have made up to this point, even if well-intentioned, invokes the mindset and behavior of a colonizer who uses generational assimilation, erasure of identity and rewriting of history to assert power over others.

From Salon

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: don’t scare me like that, colonizer.

From Slate

On May 15, graffiti appeared on UW buildings with messages like “Kill your local colonizer,” further inflaming tensions.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• ruler