Academy vs. College — What's the Difference?

An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning, research, or honorary membership. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece.

A college (Latin: collegium) is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering vocational education, or a secondary school.

A place of study or training in a special field

An institution of higher learning that grants the bachelor's degree in liberal arts or science or both.

A society or institution of distinguished scholars and artists or scientists that aims to promote and maintain standards in its particular field

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

A school for special instruction.

A junior or community college.

A secondary or college-preparatory school, especially a private one.

A school offering special instruction in a professional or technical subject

The academic community; academe

The students, faculty, and administration of one of these schools or institutions

Higher education in general. Used with the.

The building, buildings, or grounds where one of these schools or institutions is located

A society of scholars, scientists, or artists.

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

Plato's school for advanced education and the first institutional school of philosophy.

An institution for secondary education in France and certain other countries that is not supported by the state.

Platonism.

A body of persons having a common purpose or shared duties

The disciples of Plato.

An electoral college.

The garden where Plato taught.

A body of clerics living together on an endowment.

Plato's philosophical system based on skepticism; Plato's followers.

(obsolete) A corporate group; a group of colleagues.

An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university; typically a private school.

(in some proper nouns) A group sharing common purposes or goals.

A school or place of training in which some special art is taught.

(politics) An electoral college.

A society of learned people united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science.

An academic institution.

(obsolete) The knowledge disseminated in an Academy.

A specialized division of a university.

Academia.

An institution of higher education teaching undergraduates.

A body of established opinion in a particular field, regarded as authoritative.

A university.

A school directly funded by central government, independent of local control.

(Canada) A postsecondary institution that offers vocational training and/or associate's degrees.

A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.

A non-specialized, semi-autonomous division of a university, with its own faculty, departments, library, etc.

An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.

(UK) An institution of further education at an intermediate level; sixth form.

A place of training; a school.

(UK) An institution for adult education at a basic or intermediate level (teaching those of any age).

A society of learned men united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science; as, the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology.

A high school or secondary school.

A school or place of training in which some special art is taught; as, the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music.

(Australia) A private (non-government) primary or high school.

A secondary school (usually private)

(Australia) A residential hall associated with a university, possibly having its own tutors.

An institution for the advancement of art or science or literature

(Singapore) A government high school, short for junior college.

A school for special training

(in Chile) A bilingual school.

A learned establishment for the advancement of knowledge

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.

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.

A building, or number of buildings, used by a college.

Fig.: A community.

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

British slang for prison

A complex of buildings in which a college is housed