cao đẳng

• (collegiate): CĐ

Sino-Vietnamese word from 高等.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kaːw˧˧ ʔɗaŋ˧˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kaːw˧˧ ʔɗaŋ˧˨]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [kaːw˧˧ ʔɗaŋ˨˩˦]

cao đẳng

1. related to junior college/community college

   trường cao đẳng

   a junior/community college

   bằng cao đẳng

   an associate('s) degree

   học cao đẳng

   to go to junior/community college; to study an associate program

2. (of an organism or species) advanced or complex

In Vietnam, there is an arbitrary distinction between the English words university and college in the English names of Vietnamese institutions. university is used of four-year bachelor's institutions, and these include both collective ones and members of them. For example, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh is called the "Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City," but one of its members, Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin, is equally called "University of Information Technology"; compare this to the use of university and college in English, as in the University of Oxford and Worcester College. On the other hand, college in Vietnamese contexts is used only of two-year associate's institutions, despite its near synonymy to university in proper English, especially American English. This contrived distinction often gives Vietnamese learners of English a false impression of how the English words are to be used, as respective direct translations of the Vietnamese words đại học and cao đẳng.