college

UK: /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ US: /ˈkɑlɪdʒ/ ,(kol′ij)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

col•lege /ˈkɑlɪdʒ/  n.  

1. Show Business a school or institution of higher education that grants a bachelor's degree:
   [countable] She chose a college that had a good business department.
   [uncountable] He was in college during the war.
2. an organized group or union of people with common interests, duties, or powers:
   [countable] the college of physicians.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

col•lege  (kol′ij), n. 

1. Education an institution of higher learning, esp. one providing a general or liberal arts education rather than technical or professional training. Cf. university.
2. Education a constituent unit of a university, furnishing courses of instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, usually leading to a bachelor's degree.
3. Education an institution for vocational, technical, or professional instruction, as in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, or music, often a part of a university.
4. Education an endowed, self-governing association of scholars incorporated within a university, as at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.
5. Education a similar corporation outside a university.
6. Education the building or buildings occupied by an institution of higher education.
7. Education the administrators, faculty, and students of a college.
8. Education (in Britain and Canada) a private secondary school.
9. Government an organized association of persons having certain powers and rights, and performing certain duties or engaged in a particular pursuit:
   The electoral college formally selects the president.
10. a company;
    assemblage.
11. Religion Also called collegium. a body of clergy living together on a foundation for religious service or similar activity.
12. British Terms a prison.

• Latin collēgium, equivalent. to col- col-¹ + lēg-, variant stem of legere to gather + -ium -ium; compare colleague
• Anglo-French, Middle French
• Middle English 1350–1400

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

college / ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ noun

1. an institution of higher education; part of a university
2. a school or an institution providing specialized courses or teaching: a college of music
3. the building or buildings in which a college is housed
4. the staff and students of a college
5. an organized body of persons with specific rights and duties: an electoral college
6. 
   an obsolete slang word for prison

Etymology: 14th Century: from Latin collēgium company, society, band of associates, from collēga; see colleague