College (Latin: collegium) is a word most frequently used today in the United States to denote a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution and in other English-speaking countries to refer to an academically oriented minor school. extra broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals. Originally, it meant a set of people living together, under a common set of rules (con- = “together” + leg- = “law” or lego = “I choose”); indeed, some colleges call their members “fellows”. The precise usage of the term varies among the English-speaking countries. In the United States and Ireland, for example, the terms “college” and “university” may be regard as loosely interchangeable, whereas in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries, a “college” is usually an institution between school and university level (although basic schools in universities are sometimes known as “colleges”).