a degree in the US pretty much only means a bachelors unless there's an adjective in front of it. if you mean a masters degree, then you refer to it as a masters or a master's degree or a graduate degree. if you mean a ph.d you call it a phd or a doctorate or maybe a graduate degree, if there's no need to differentiate between masters and doctorates.

every now and then a degree will refer to a high school degree, but usually people say diploma or high school diploma, not degree.

in the US a bachelor's is at least 4 years of work (some degrees like architecture require 5) and from what my european friends (sample size <5) have told me, a US bachelors is about halfway between a european bacheolr's and master's degree. law degrees and medical degrees require a bachlor's degree before the school will admit you for your MD or JD (i've been told this isn't the cas in some parts of euroope).

master's degrees usually take about 2 years to complete. some require a thesis like a doctorate, but many just require taking classes. if you are combining a masters with a bachelors degree within the same program at the same school, then usually a masters only takes 1 year instead of two.

that clears things up; thank you for taking the time to write that up. As for the sample size: what a master's is in Europe is pretty consistent (there are some 1 year degrees, though). It takes five years at university to get one, 3 for the bachelor's, 2 for the master's