Word.ws English Dictionary

penal colonies

penal colonies is the plural of penal colony.

Meaning of penal colony

Noun

penal colony (plural penal colonies)

  1. A colonial territory used (mainly) for the detention and forced labor of criminals, typically where free labor is desperately scarce.
    • Australia was used as a penal colony by the United Kingdom in the 18th to 19th century.

Questions about penal colonies

What is penal colonies the plural of?
Penal colonies is the plural of penal colony.

Words near penal colonies in the dictionary

  1. penaid
  2. penaids
  3. penal
  4. penal code
  5. penal codes
  6. penal colonies
  7. penal colony
  8. penal law
  9. penal laws
  10. penal notice
  11. penal notices

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penal colonies (page history and authors); penal colony (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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