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.

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Etymology

Origin of colonizer

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

Example Sentences

Powerful new international circuits of credit were built that deepened America’s integration into a British-led global economy and helped pave the way for the young U.S. to leapfrog its former colonizer.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 1, 2025

As Brigham Young, the Mormon colonizer, said, “This is the place.”

From New York Times • Jan. 3, 2024

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

Much of the Arab world sees a chance for a former colony to give its one-time colonizer its comeuppance.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 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