Post-colonial or postcolonial?
post-colonial is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of postcolonial”; postcolonial is an adjective meaning “Following the end of colonial rule”. post-colonial is written with a hyphen and postcolonial as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between post-colonial and postcolonial?
| post-colonial | postcolonial | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of postcolonial | Following the end of colonial rule Of or pertaining to postcolonialism A person living in a postcolonial society |
| Example | none recorded | In the postcolonial period, democracy alternated with military rule |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: post-colonial and postcolonial in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of post-colonial and postcolonial
post-colonial
- 1
Alternative form of postcolonial
postcolonial
- 1
Following the end of colonial rule
In the postcolonial period, democracy alternated with military rule
- 2
A person living in a postcolonial society
- 3
Of or pertaining to postcolonialism
a postcolonial theory of esthetics
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, post-colonial or postcolonial?
post-colonial is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; postcolonial about once in every 2 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).