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• academy
  academy

  noun

  a secondary or high school, especially a private one.
• Academy
  Academy

academy

American  

[uh-kad-uh-mee] / əˈkæd ə mi /

noun

• academies
  plural

1. a secondary or high school, especially a private one.

   My daughter goes to a very exclusive academy in Chicago.

2. a school or college for special instruction or training in a subject.

   a military academy.

3. an association or institution for the advancement of art, literature, or science.

   the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

4. 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.

5. the Academy,

   1. the Platonic school of philosophy or its adherents.

   2. academe.

   3. French Academy.

   4. Royal Academy.

   5. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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Academy ¹ British  

/ əˈkædəmɪ /

noun

1. 1. the grove or garden near Athens where Plato taught in the late 4th century _bc

   2. the school of philosophy founded by Plato

   3. the members of this school and their successors

2. short for the French Academy Royal Academy

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academy ² British  

/ əˈkædəmɪ /

noun

1. an institution or society for the advancement of literature, art, or science

2. a school for training in a particular skill or profession

   a military academy

3. a secondary school: now used only as part of a name, and often denoting a private school

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• academies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of academy

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. )

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Explanation

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

academy Academy academies

Now, at the academy, cadets had to fork over to leave the compound, take longer vacations or choose their military base after graduation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Segev met Tamar Bar-Ilan and Yonatan Itai in 2010 when they started their Israel Defense Forces service and joined its Talpiot program, a secretive and selective tech leadership academy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Saracens have sacked Totoa Auvaa, the academy player who was involved in a nightclub incident with England cricketers Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson in June.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

They spent £200 million on a youth soccer academy, while pouring millions into a large real-estate development in the east of Manchester.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Jule goes to a specialized academy housed in a renovated mansion on an ordinary street in New York City.

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart

More than three years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a teenage Stupnikov stepped up to a podium at the Budyonny Military Academy of the Signal Corps to give his oath of service.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

The findings, published September 23, 2026, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, reveal a concerning trend in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

Amazon will pay $15 million annually in its six-year deal with the Television Academy, a substantial increase over what the broadcast networks were paying.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

Its success helped the singer from Alabama to sweep the Academy of Country Music Awards in May.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

The conversation turned away from my simulation then, and back to the intricacies of running a place like the Academy.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Spanish academies function on the idea that a coach is a teacher first, and Rodri absorbed that from a young age.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

Powerhouse football club Flamengo called the move a "heavy blow to Brazilian sports," warning it could impact not only professional football, but youth academies, women's soccer, Olympic sports and various championships.

From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026

After playing for youth academies such as Arsenal, West Ham United and Chelsea, Gabriel signed with Manchester United at age 11.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

We have also been inside academies where China is training the people who will work alongside its robotic workforce.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Though exhausted, ill, and anxious about the voyage ahead, they carried evidence of a vast, teeming, interconnected ecosystem of plants and insects, the likes of which the great European academies had never seen.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

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Related Words

• boarding school
• institute
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