penal colony

1. 1.

   a penal institution where prisoners are exiled (often located on an island from which escape is difficult or impossible)

   Broaderpenal institution

Questions about penal colony

What does penal colony mean?

penal colony means "a penal institution where prisoners are exiled (often located on an island from which escape is difficult or impossible)".

Is penal colony a common word?

penal colony is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.