academic

[ ak-uh-dem-ik ]

adjective

1. of or relating to a college, academy, school, or other educational institution:

   academic requirements.

2. pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, as the humanities or pure mathematics.

   Synonyms: liberal, humanist

3. theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful:

   an academic question;

   an academic discussion of a matter already decided.

4. learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.

   Synonyms: theoretical

5. conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional:

   academic painting.

6. acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university:

   academic preparation for the ministry.

7. Academic, of or relating to Academe or to the Platonic school of philosophy.

noun

1. a student or teacher at a college or university.
2. a person who is academic in background, attitudes, methods, etc.:

   He was by temperament an academic, concerned with books and the arts.

3. Academic, a person who supports or advocates the Platonic school of philosophy.
4. academics, the scholarly activities of a school or university, as classroom studies or research projects:

   more emphasis on academics and less on athletics.

academic

/ ˌækəˈdɛmɪk /

adjective

1. belonging or relating to a place of learning, esp a college, university, or academy
2. of purely theoretical or speculative interest

   an academic argument

3. excessively concerned with intellectual matters and lacking experience of practical affairs
4. (esp of a schoolchild) having an aptitude for study
5. conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional

   an academic painter

6. relating to studies such as languages, philosophy, and pure science, rather than applied, technical, or professional studies

noun

1. a member of a college or university

Derived Forms

• ˌacaˈdemically, adverb

Other Words From

• an·ti·ac·a·dem·ic adjective noun
• in·ter·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• non·ac·a·dem·ic adjective noun
• pro·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• pseu·do·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• qua·si-ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• sem·i·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• sub·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
• un·ac·a·dem·ic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of academic¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin Acadēmicus, from Greek Akadēmeikós. See academy, academe, -ic

Synonym Study

See formal.

Example Sentences

Do you think academic history and popular history have gotten more similar over the last 15 or 20 years?

From The Daily Beast

Are you seeing more commercial pressure from academic presses for historians to sexy it up a bit?

From The Daily Beast

Their claims have led to both academic controversy and localized conflict.

From The Daily Beast

They are afflicted with “progressive spiritual emptiness,” he said, which no amount of academic honors and degrees can fill.

From The Daily Beast

Academic freedom has been a hot debate within education circles.

From The Daily Beast

The earnest youth grinding at the academic mill has dreamed it in the pauses of his studious labor.

From Project Gutenberg

The Wren Building, named in his honor, was constructed by 1698 and it is the oldest academic structure still in existence.

From Project Gutenberg

While his two brothers carried on the business he devoted himself to an academic career.

From Project Gutenberg

Later in the evening Jenny Wick accompanied Paul, as he sang some old ballads full of a kind of academic gruesomeness.

From Project Gutenberg

Later again, he turned to the more ancient Greeks, and the result 193 was the most academic of his pictures, his “Leonidas.”

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• collegiate
• intellectual
• scholarly
• scholastic