- an association of individuals having certain powers and duties, and engaged in some common pursuit: the electoral college
Origin of college
orig. with ref. 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. a private secondary school: Eton College
- 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 of college
Middle English and Old French from Classical Latin collegium, community, society, guild, fraternity from collega: see colleague
