noun

1. an association of individuals having certain powers and duties, and engaged in some common pursuit the electoral college

2. Etymology: orig. with reference 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
3. 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
4. a school offering specialized instruction in some profession or occupation a secretarial college
5. Brit., Cdn. a private secondary school
6. the students, faculty, or administrators of a college
7. a clerical group that has been given the legal status of an ecclesiastical corporation
8. the building or buildings of a college

Etymology: ME & OFr < L collegium, community, society, guild, fraternity < collega: see colleague