colonial

English

Etymology

From colony +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈləʊ.ni.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊniəl

Adjective

colonial (comparative more colonial, superlative most colonial)

1. Of or pertaining to a colony.
2. Of or pertaining to a period when a country or territory was a colony.
   • 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 25 November 2020, page 52:

     From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

   • 2024 May 8, Dhruv Tikekar, “How India got stuck in its own unusual time zone”, in CNN‎:

     India’s half-hour zone dates back to colonial rule of India and the era when ever-faster steamships and trains were shrinking the world.

3. Of or pertaining to the ideals of colonialism.
4. (US) Of or relating to the original Thirteen Colonies of the USA.
5. (US) Of or relating to the style of architecture prevalent at about the time of the Revolution.
6. (biology) Tending to form colonies (especially of cells).

Derived terms

• allocolonial
• anticolonial
• autocolonial
• biocolonial
• colonial bent
• colonial blue
• colonial empire
• colonial goose
• colonialise
• colonialism
• colonialist
• colonialistic
• colonialistically
• coloniality
• colonialization
• colonialize
• colonial lag
• colonially
• colonialness
• colonial salmon
• concolonial
• countercolonial
• cybercolonial
• decolonial
• Eurocolonial
• French colonial empire
• heterocolonial
• homocolonial
• intercolonial
• intracolonial
• microcolonial
• multicolonial
• neocolonial
• noncolonial
• paracolonial
• postcolonial
• precolonial
• pseudocolonial
• retro-colonial
• semicolonial
• subcolonial
• supercolonial
• transcolonial
• uncolonial
• unicolonial

Translations

of or pertaining to a colony

Albanian: kolonial (sq) Arabic: اِسْتِعْمَارِيّ (istiʕmāriyy) Armenian: գաղութային (hy) (gaġutʻayin) Belarusian: каланія́льны (kalanijálʹny), колёнія́льны (koljonijálʹny) (Taraškievica) Bulgarian: колониа́лен (koloniálen) Catalan: colonial (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 殖民的 (zh) (zhímín de); 殖民地的 (zh) (zhímíndì de) Czech: koloniální Danish: kolonial Dutch: koloniaal (nl) Finnish: siirtomaa- French: colonial (fr) Galician: colonial Georgian: კოლონიური (ḳoloniuri) German: kolonial (de) Greek: αποικιακός (el) (apoikiakós) Hindi: औपनिवेशिक (hi) (aupniveśik) Ido: koloniala (io) Italian: coloniale (it) Latin: colōnicus Macedonian: колонија́лен (kolonijálen) Malay: jajahan (ms), koloni, kolonial Norwegian: Bokmål: kolonial Persian: استعماری (fa) (este'mâri) Polish: kolonialny (pl) Portuguese: colonial (pt) Romanian: colonial (ro) Russian: колониа́льный (ru) (koloniálʹnyj) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ко̏лонија̄лан Roman: kȍlonijālan (sh) Slovak: koloniálny Slovene: kolonialen (sl) Spanish: colonial (es) Swedish: kolonial (sv) Tagalog: sakupbayanin, sakupin Turkish: kolonyal (tr) Tuvan: колониалдыг (kolonialdıg) Ukrainian: колоніа́льний (uk) (koloniálʹnyj) Vietnamese: thực dân (vi) Yakut: колониальнай (kolonialnay)

of or pertaining to a period when a country or territory was a colony

Bulgarian: колониа́лен (koloniálen) Danish: kolonial Esperanto: kolonia French: colonial (fr) Georgian: კოლონიური (ḳoloniuri) German: kolonial (de) Greek: αποικιακός (el) (apoikiakós) Hindi: औपनिवेशिक (hi) (aupniveśik) Ido: koloniala (io) Portuguese: colonial (pt) Russian: колониа́льный (ru) (koloniálʹnyj) Swedish: kolonial (sv)

US: of or relating to the original thirteen colonies of the USA

Danish: kolonial French: colonial (fr) Portuguese: colonial (pt) Swedish: kolonial (sv)

US: of or relating to the style of architecture

Bulgarian: колониа́лен (koloniálen) French: colonial (fr) Ido: koloniala (io) Portuguese: colonial (pt) Russian: колониа́льный (ru) (koloniálʹnyj) Swedish: kolonial (sv)

Noun

colonial (plural colonials)

1. A person from a country that is or was controlled by another.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 192:

     None of them are, so to speak, idle men. Many of them are emigrants, not of the soil born and bred colonials.

   • 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 150:

     The rest of us had tea and finger sandwiches with members of the royal household, which was very elegant but hard on some of us ill-schooled colonials.

2. (US) A house that is built in a style reminiscent of the period of the colonization of New England.

Translations

person from a country that is or was controlled by another

Galician: colono m Ido: koloniano (io) Portuguese: colono (pt) m

US: house built in a style reminiscent of the colonial period

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Related terms

• colonization

Catalan

Pronunciation

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

colonial m or f (masculine and feminine plural colonials)

1. colonial

Derived terms

• colonialisme
• colonialista

Related terms

• colònia

Further reading

• “colonial”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “colonial”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “colonial” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “colonial” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.lɔ.njal/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

colonial (feminine coloniale, masculine plural coloniaux, feminine plural coloniales)

1. colonial

Descendants

• → German: kolonial
• → Romanian: colonial
• → Turkish: kolonial, kolonyal

Noun

colonial m (plural coloniaux, feminine coloniale)

1. a colonial, a resident of a colony
2. a soldier dispatched to a colony

Further reading

• “colonial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Etymology

From colónia / colônia (“colony”) +‎ -al (“of or relating to”).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.niˈaw/ [ko.lo.nɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /ko.loˈnjaw/ [ko.loˈnjaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ku.luˈnjal/ [ku.luˈnjaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ku.luˈnjal/ [ku.luˈnjaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ku.luˈnja.li/

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: co‧lo‧ni‧al

Adjective

colonial m or f (plural coloniais)

1. (geopolitics) colonial (relating to colonies: regions ruled by another country)

   Governo colonial.

   Colonial government.

2. (geopolitics) colonial; colonialistic (relating to colonialism)

   Synonym: colonialista

   Expansão colonial.

   Colonial expansion.

3. (chiefly art) colonial (relating to the period when a country was a colony)

   Arquitetura colonial.

   Colonial architecture.

4. (Brazil) relating to the culture of rural immigrant settlements

   Queijo colonial.

   [Type of cheese made by German immigrants].

Derived terms

• colonialismo
• colonialista

Related terms

• coloniano
• colono

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French colonial. Equivalent to colonie +‎ -al.

Adjective

colonial m or n (feminine singular colonială, masculine plural coloniali, feminine and neuter plural coloniale)

1. colonial

Declension

Declension of colonial

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	colonial		colonială		coloniali	coloniale
	definite	colonialul		coloniala		colonialii	colonialele
genitive- dative	indefinite	colonial		coloniale		coloniali	coloniale
	definite	colonialului		colonialei		colonialilor	colonialelor

Spanish

Etymology

From colonia +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koloˈnjal/ [ko.loˈnjal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: co‧lo‧nial

Adjective

colonial m or f (masculine and feminine plural coloniales)

1. colonial

Derived terms

• anticolonial
• colonialismo
• colonialista
• colonialmente

Further reading

• “colonial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024