How to Use colonist in a Sentence

colonist

noun
  • British colonists settled the area in the 18th century.
  • Those colonists declared that the land was now theirs.
    — Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Warm breezes, palm trees, gin-swilling colonists in white suits.
    — Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2023
  • Above is a replica of one of the ships the colonists arrived on.
    — baltimoresun.com, 25 Mar. 2018
  • But they won’t be focused on issues like how colonists grow food.
    — David Z. Morris, Fortune, 15 Oct. 2017
  • The courage that the colonists had, hungry for freedom, to start a new life here.
    — Nicole Russell, USA Today, 4 July 2025
  • The colonists were soon fed up with the Gaspee and its captain, Lt.
    — Jennifer McDermott, Fox News, 7 June 2018
  • Purves went scot-free, and most of the colonists believed the whole thing was Markham's fault.
    — Paula McLain, Town & Country, 2 Sep. 2015
  • The stones were inscribed with an ongoing saga of the colonists’ demise.
    — Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 13 May 2024
  • English and French colonists brought with them iron pots called chaudière in French.
    — Devra Ferst, CNT, 12 Sep. 2017
  • One reason was that colonists often did not have enough coins to buy food and household items.
    — Jonah Estess, The Conversation, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Wamelink and his team aren’t the only ones thinking about how to feed future space colonists.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 22 Oct. 2019
  • This is the violent sleight of hand of the colonist, the oppressor.
    — Christine Winter, Artforum, 1 Mar. 2025
  • The centuries-old penchant for pie came over with colonists from England.
    — Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2024
  • Its name refers to the belief that just 3 percent of colonists rose up to fight the British.
    — Randall Chase, chicagotribune.com, 14 Apr. 2018
  • Canons and more were taken from the fort to Boston to bolster the colonists there.
    — USA Today, 6 May 2026
  • Dunmore’s suspicion of the colonists, on the other hand, had not.
    — Andrew Lawler, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Apr. 2025
  • This surely confirmed the colonists’ sense of their own importance.
    — Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • The colonists found Squanto unharmed and took him back to Plymouth.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 14 Aug. 2019
  • The colonists, in the process of becoming Americans, called him a traitor.
    — Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, 5 July 2017
  • Our colonists taught this lesson to King George, thus leading to the birth of our nation.
    — Letter Writers, Twin Cities, 25 July 2019
  • Not surprisingly, some colonists preferred to be layabouts.
    — The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 27 Nov. 2025
  • French-Creole colonists brought the beignet to the city in the 18th century.
    — Lanee Lee, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2024
  • In the case of the colonists, that prize was mountains of diamonds or gold, or a quick passage to Asia.
    — The Economist, 7 June 2018
  • In the novel, Mickey 7 is a space colonist known as an expendable.
    — Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2024
  • The lesson asks the students to answer questions in the perspective of a colonist.
    — Jessica Oh, ajc, 6 Mar. 2018
  • The effect was to rally hundreds, if not thousands, of colonists to the rebellion.
    — Jasmine Baehr, FOXNews.com, 20 Apr. 2025
  • Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoags sat down together to an autumn feast of venison and wild fowl.
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Nov. 2023
  • But within three years, the site was found abandoned and its colonists dead — earning the name Port Famine.
    — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Their pacifism later brings them in direct conflict with the colonists gearing up to fight the British.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'colonist.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: