college

American  

[kol-ij] / ˈkɒl ɪdʒ /

noun

• colleges
  plural

1. an institution of higher learning, especially one providing a general or liberal arts education rather than technical or professional training.

2. a constituent unit of a university, furnishing courses of instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, usually leading to a bachelor's degree.

3. an institution for vocational, technical, or professional instruction, as in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, or music, often a part of a university.

4. an endowed, self-governing association of scholars incorporated within a university, as at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England.

5. a similar corporation outside a university.

6. the building or buildings occupied by an institution of higher education.

7. the administrators, faculty, and students of a college.

8. (in Britain and Canada) a private secondary school.

9. 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. Also called collegium. a body of clergy living together on a foundation for religious service or similar activity.

12. British Slang. a prison.

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college British  

/ 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 See also Sacred College

   an electoral college

6. a body of clerics living in community and supported by endowment

7. an obsolete slang word for prison

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• postcollege
  noun
• precollege
  noun
• subcollege
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colleges
  plural

Etymology

Origin of college

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Middle French, from Latin collēgium, from col- col- ¹ + lēg-, variant stem of legere “to choose, gather, read” + -ium -ium; cf. colleague

Explanation

In the US, people pursuing education after high school go to college––spending either two or four years earning an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree. Many colleges are housed within universities. College derives from the Latin collegium 'partnership, association.' While a university offers many programs leading to graduate degrees beyond a bachelor's degree, a college is undergraduate only. So if you want to pursue becoming a lawyer, a doctor, or a college professor, chances are college is just a weigh station on your route to graduate school.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

college colleges

The bottom line: Most students will still be able to get federal loans to go to college and study whatever they want, even if their field doesn’t offer a clear link to a job.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

It has been a disastrous and unfamiliar start for Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, who before this season had never lost his first two games, either in college or the pros.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

Requiring that graduates of college degree programs earn more than someone with a high-school diploma is a relatively low floor, Matsudaira said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

From coast to coast, the country’s richest programs are wrestling with a strange problem in college football’s NIL era.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

I hadn’t seen him since before he went to college downstate.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

In 1945, Vannevar Bush suggested the U.S. government fund “basic research in the colleges, universities and research institutes,” which became a big business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

As students returned to colleges after the pandemic, however, the wind shifted.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

Father A Nation operates across South Africa, teaching healthy masculinity and running training programmes across dozens of schools and colleges.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

“My goal is to help create community colleges where every student feels supported, included, and empowered to succeed,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

When he saw I was serious and waiting for an answer, he said, “Yep, colleges like it when students do extra stuff at school, like running for student body office.”

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez