a secondary or high school, especially a private one.
My daughter goes to a very exclusive academy in Chicago.
a school or college for special instruction or training in a subject.
a military academy.
an association or institution for the advancement of art, literature, or science.
the National Academy of Arts and Letters.
a group of authorities and leaders in a field of scholarship, art, etc., who are often permitted to dictate standards, prescribe methods, and criticize new ideas.
the Academy,
the Platonic school of philosophy or its adherents.
the grove or garden near Athens where Plato taught in the late 4th century bc
the school of philosophy founded by Plato
the members of this school and their successors
short for the French Academy Royal Academy
an institution or society for the advancement of literature, art, or science
a school for training in a particular skill or profession
a military academy
a secondary school: now used only as part of a name, and often denoting a private school
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English achademye, achadomye, from Latin Acadēmīa, the name of the public gymnasium near Athens, sacred to the hero Academus, where Plato established his school of philosophy; from Greek Akadēmía, variant of Akadḗmeia, noun use of feminine adjective Akadḗmeios, derivative of Akádēm(os) + -eia adjective suffix; see origin at Academus; see also -y 3 ( def. )
An academy is a fancy school, often one devoted to one subject or discipline, such as music or science. You can also use academy to describe the world of higher learning. If you show unusual gifts as a clarinetist, you should consider attending the music academy in the next town. That's where you'll learn the most about your art. It's a private school, the Goodman Academy of Music, named after Benny Goodman, who was the greatest jazz clarinetist ever. If you want to use academy in its other sense, try "Those home experiments are cool, but without peer review, the academy will never accept them as science." Darn academy.
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Appeared in the June 9, 2026, print edition as 'Meta Launches Data Center ‘Workforce Academy’'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
That project also produced a groundbreaking 2022 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
From Science Daily • Jun. 7, 2026
Mahan graduated the Naval Academy in 1859 and, after an undistinguished career at sea, led the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
At North Mead Primary Academy in Leicester, almost half the pupils are on free school meals because they are from the lowest income families.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
“In the future,” Elliot said, “you and I travel back through time to leave that Cocoon. If we hadn’t, you and I would have been at the Academy when the attack happened. Right?”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
