Word.ws English Dictionary

decolonisation

UK/diːˌkɒlənaɪˈzeɪʃən/

decolonisation is the alternative spelling of decolonization.

Meaning of decolonization

Noun

decolonization (countable and uncountable, plural decolonizations)

  1. The freeing of a colony etc from dependent status by granting it independence.
  2. The reverse of colonization, i.e. granting back autonomy to a group.
    • In full decolonization mode, Greenlanders also have abandoned the Danish names that once gave some of us a precarious toehold on their island's geography. Nuuk, for example, appeared on children's geography board games until recently as Godthab.2001 May 20, James Brooke, “Where Icebergs Are Born”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2017
  3. The elimination of a colony of pathogens from the body of a patient, especially antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Forms of decolonisation

pluraldecolonisations

Origin of decolonisation

From de- + colonisation.

Words that rhyme with decolonisation

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about decolonisation

What is decolonisation the alternative spelling of?
Decolonisation is the alternative spelling of decolonization.
How do you pronounce decolonisation?
Decolonisation is pronounced /diːˌkɒlənaɪˈzeɪʃən/ (UK).

Words near decolonisation in the dictionary

  1. decolonialize
  2. decolonialized
  3. decolonializes
  4. decolonializing
  5. decolonially
  6. decolonisation
  7. decolonisations
  8. decolonise
  9. decolonised
  10. decolonises
  11. decolonising

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: decolonisation (page history and authors); decolonization (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “decolonisation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/decolonisation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.