college

The definition of college is a place of higher learning after high school that provides education and grants degrees or certification.

(noun)

See college in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

an association of individuals having certain powers and duties, and engaged in some common pursuit: the electoral college
Origin: orig. with reference to the university communities of Oxford & Cambridge
an institution of higher education that grants degrees, as a bachelor's degree after a four-year course or an associate degree after a two-year course: it is sometimes the undergraduate division of a university
any of the schools of a university offering instruction and granting degrees in any of several specialized courses of study, esp. graduate study, as in liberal arts, architecture, law, or medicine
a school offering specialized instruction in some profession or occupation: a secretarial college
Brit., Cdn. a private secondary school
the students, faculty, or administrators of a college
a clerical group that has been given the legal status of an ecclesiastical corporation
the building or buildings of a college

Origin: ME & OFr < L collegium, community, society, guild, fraternity < collega: see colleague

See college in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

a. An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.
b. An undergraduate division or school of a university offering courses and granting degrees in a particular field.
c. A school, sometimes but not always a university, offering special instruction in professional or technical subjects.
d. The students, faculty, and administration of such a school or institution.
e. The building or buildings occupied by such a school or institution.
f. Chiefly British A self-governing society of scholars for study or instruction, incorporated within a university.
g. An institution in France for secondary education that is not supported by the state.
a. A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties: a college of surgeons.
b. An electoral college.
A body of clerics living together on an endowment.