Etymology : Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin collegium society, from collega colleague; more at COLLEAGUE
Pronunciation : 'kä-lij
Function : noun
Date : 14th century
1. council; institution of higher education that grants degrees. college\col"lege\ , n. [f. collège, l. collegium, fr. collega colleague. see:
colleague.].
2. a collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, peculiar rights and privileges; as, a college of heralds; a college of electors; a college of bishops. the college of the cardinals. then they made colleges of sufferers; persons who, to secure their inheritance in the world to come, did cut off all their portion in this. taylor.
3. a society of scholars or friends of learning, incorporated for study or instruction, esp. in the higher branches of knowledge; as, the colleges of oxford and cambridge universities, and many american colleges.note: in france and some other parts of continental europe, college is used to include schools occupied with rudimentary studies, and receiving children as pupils.
4. a building, or number of buildings, used by a college. "the gate of trinity college.".
5. fig.: a community. [r.] thick as the college of the bees in may.college of justice, a term applied in scotland to the supreme civil courts and their principal officers.
6. A collection, body, or society of persons engaged in common pursuits, or having common duties and interests, and sometimes, by charter, peculiar rights and privileges; as, a college of heralds; a college of electors; a college of bishops.
7. A society of scholars or friends of learning, incorporated for study or instruction, esp. in the higher branches of knowledge; as, the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and many American colleges.
8. A building, or number of buildings, used by a college.
9. Fig.: A community. a complex of buildings in which a college is housed British slang for prison the body of faculty and students of a college an institution of higher education created to educate and grant degrees; often a part of a university.
10. 1. A college is an institution where students study after they have left school. Their daughter Joanna is doing business studies at a local college He is now a professor of economics at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts.
11. A college is one of the institutions which some British universities are divided into. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford.
12. At some universities in the United States, colleges are divisions which offer degrees in particular subjects. a professor at the University of Florida College of Law.
13. College is used in Britain in the names of some secondary schools which charge fees. In 1854, Cheltenham Ladies' College became the first girls' public school. Institution that offers postsecondary education. The term has various meanings. In Roman law a collegium was a body of persons associated for a common function. The name was used by many medieval institutions, including guilds. In most universities of the later Middle Ages, collegium meant an endowed residence hall for university students. The colleges kept libraries and scientific instruments and offered salaries to tutors who could prepare students to be examined for degrees. Eventually few students lived outside colleges, and college teaching eclipsed university teaching. In England, secondary schools (e.g., Winchester and Eton) are sometimes called colleges. Canada also has collegiate schools. In the U.S., college may refer to a four-year institution of higher education offering a bachelor's degree, or to a two-year junior or community college with a program leading to the associate's degree. A four-year college usually emphasizes a liberal arts or general education rather than specialized technical or vocational preparation. The four-year college may be an independent private institution or an undergraduate division of a university. Amherst College Bard College Bowdoin College Bryn Mawr College Carleton College Dartmouth College Davidson College Trinity College electoral college Eton College Haverford College junior college community college Land Grant College Act of 1862 Middlebury College Morehouse College Mount Holyoke College Oberlin College Smith College Spelman College Swarthmore College Vassar College Wellesley College William and Mary College of Williams College Dartmouth College case Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward Claremont Colleges.