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colonialism

noun

Simple meaning

The policy of a country seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhlohneeuhlihzuhm

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kəˈloʊniəlɪzəm

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The policy of a country seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance.

  2. A colonial word, phrase, concept, or habit.

  3. Colonial life.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The policy of a country seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance.

Used this way, colonialism is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in finance or economics and government or politics contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Finance/economics
  • Government/politics

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.