colony
n. countablen. a group of animals or plants of the same kind that live and grow together. You often use this to describe insects like ants or birds that nest in large groups.
n. a group of organisms of the same species living or growing in close association. Often applied to social insects, nesting birds, or bacterial growth on a culture medium.
A large colony of ants lives under the garden path.
Researchers observed a colony of penguins huddling together to survive the harsh winter winds.
The biologist identified several distinct bacterial colonies on the agar plate, each originating from a single cell that had multiplied over forty-eight hours.
From Middle English colane, colonye, from Latin colōnia (“colony”), from colōnus (“farmer; colonist”), from colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from earlier quelō, from Proto-Indo-European kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”). Doublet of Cologne, Colonia, and Köln.
Commonly takes the preposition 'of' followed by the name of the species.