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academia

American  
[ak-uh-dee-mee-uh, -deem-yuh, -dem-ee-uh, -dem-yuh] / ˌæk əˈdi mi ə, -ˈdim jə, -ˈdɛm i ə, -ˈdɛm jə /

noun

  1. the milieu or interests of a university, college, or academy; academe.


academia British  
/ ˌækəˈdiːmɪə /

noun

  1. the academic world

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of academia

First recorded in 1945–50; from New Latin, Latin; see academy


Explanation

The world of colleges and universities is academia. Academia is the academic world. If you like school, then you might enjoy academia, which is also known as academe. People in academia include students — college and university students, specifically. Then there are the professors, who teach the students. That's not all professors do; they also research various subjects. Producing research is one of the major goals of academia. If you like thinking and learning and studying, academia could be the place for you.

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Vocabulary lists containing academia

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"With coordinated engagement between academia, clinicians, and industry, vanillin has the potential to progress from an underutilized bioactive to a clinically deployable component of next-generation wound care and regenerative therapeutics," says Professor Vasilev.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026

The clearest exception was from academia, where a scientist had sued her supervisor alleging that he “deleted her name and presented a paper as his own in a class he taught.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

She discovered Awad’s fiction when she went down a BookTube dark academia genre-themed rabbit hole.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Today, most of the doomers warning against the impact of artificial intelligence come from inside the companies themselves, from academia, or both.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

By and by Rosellini left academia, departed Seattle, and drifted north up the coast through British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

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