colonize

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
19
Words With Friends
22
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/ˈkɑlənaɪz/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈkɑlənaɪz/ · /ˈkɒlənaɪz/ · /ˈkɔlənɑjz/

Definition of colonize

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (transitive)To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony.
    “When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (transitive)To settle (a place) with colonists, and hence make (a place) into a colony.
    “When you are colonized by dangerous bacteria their presence in your body does no damage. You become a reservoir for those little stinkers.”
  2. (transitive)To settle among and establish control over (the indigenous people of an area).
    “The administration finally sent a naval vessel to return the 368 survivors to the United States in 1864. This ended official efforts to colonize blacks.”
  3. (intransitive)To begin a colony or colonies.
  4. (broadly, transitive)To intrude into and take over (the autonomy, experience, social movement, etc, of a less powerful person or group); to commandeer or appropriate.
    “What disservice would be done if issues regarding sexualities in organisations were side-lined by a heteronormative impetus to colonise queer theory?”
    “For slavery aimed not only to colonize black women's bodies, sex, and sexuality, to undermine her, it sought to subvert and destroy any authentic relationship between black women and black men as well as among black women themselves.”
    “[…] suggesting that organisational discourses of heteronormativity cannot fully colonise gay sexualities and genders.”
    “The burden of judgment imposed by the politics of respectability can easily colonize black minds.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁-e-ti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Latin colōnus Latin colōniader. Middle English colane English colony Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English colonize From colony + -ize.

Hooks

3 extensions · 3 back

A single letter you can add to colonize to make another valid word.

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