noun (n)

• a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government(noun.group)

  Example:
  The American colony in Paris.
  

  Synonym:
  settlement
  

  source: wordnet30
• a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together(noun.group)

  source: wordnet30
• one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States(noun.location)

  source: wordnet30
• a place where a group of people with the same interest or occupation are concentrated(noun.location)

  Example:
  A nudist colony.
  An artists' colony.
  

  source: wordnet30
• a geographical area politically controlled by a distant country(noun.location)

  Synonym:
  dependency
  

  source: wordnet30
• (microbiology) a group of organisms grown from a single parent cell(noun.group)

  source: wordnet30
• A company of people transplanted from their mother country to a remote province or country, and remaining subject to the jurisdiction of the parent state; as, the British colonies in America.(noun)

  source: webster1913
• A cell family or group of common origin, mostly of unicellular organisms, esp. among the lower algæ. They may adhere in chains or groups, or be held together by a gelatinous envelope.(noun)

  source: webster1913