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college

 - 4 dictionary results

col⋅lege

[kol-ij]
–noun
1. an institution of higher learning, esp. one providing a general or liberal arts education rather than technical or professional training. Compare university.
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.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < AF, MF < L collēgium, equiv. to col- col- 1 + lēg-, var. s. of legere to gather + -ium -ium; cf. colleague
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To college
col·lege   (kŏl'ĭj)   
n.  
    1. An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.

    2. An undergraduate division or school of a university offering courses and granting degrees in a particular field.

    3. A school, sometimes but not always a university, offering special instruction in professional or technical subjects.

    4. The students, faculty, and administration of such a school or institution.

    5. The building or buildings occupied by such a school or institution.

    6. Chiefly British A self-governing society of scholars for study or instruction, incorporated within a university.

    7. An institution in France for secondary education that is not supported by the state.

    8. A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties: a college of surgeons.

    9. An electoral college.

    1. A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties: a college of surgeons.

    2. An electoral college.

  1. A body of clerics living together on an endowment.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin collēgium, association; see collegium.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

college 
c.1378, from O.Fr. collége, from L. collegium "community, society, guild," lit. "association of collegae" (see colleague). First meaning any corporate group, the sense of "academic institution" became principal in 19c. through Oxford and Cambridge, where it had been used since 1379. Collegiate is 1514, from M.L. collegiatus "of or having to do with a college."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

College

Heb. mishneh (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chr. 34:22), rendered in Revised Version "second quarter", the residence of the prophetess Huldah. The Authorized Version followed the Jewish commentators, who, following the Targum, gave the Hebrew word its post-Biblical sense, as if it meant a place of instruction. It properly means the "second," and may therefore denote the lower city (Acra), which was built after the portion of the city on Mount Zion, and was enclosed by a second wall.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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