academic

American  

[ak-uh-dem-ik] / ˌæk əˈdɛm ɪk /

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.

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noun

• academics
  plural

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 British  

/ 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

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noun

1. a member of a college or university

Synonym Usage

See formal.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antiacademic
  adjective
• interacademic
  adjective
• nonacademic
  adjective
• proacademic
  adjective
• pseudoacademic
  adjective
• quasi-academic
  adjective
• semiacademic
  adjective
• subacademic
  adjective
• unacademic
  adjective
• academically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• academics
  plural

Etymology

Origin of academic

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

Explanation

Something that is academic is related to school. Your parents might want to spend less time playing video games and more time focusing on academic pursuits. The noun academic refers to a professor or scholar. As a noun or an adjective, academic relates to book learning and not always in a good way. An academic discussion back in Plato's Academy was probably something better than what it has more recently come to mean: a discussion that's academic has no place in the real world; it's not practical. An academic might have a PhD in Robotics but not know how to work the TV. It doesn't have to mean stuffy, though, just related to college — like when you need an academic gown for graduation.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

academic academics

It currently stipulates that a player’s eligibility clock begins with either their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Swarthmore College was recently unable to corroborate a few applications claiming an astonishing number of academic and athletic feats, said admission director Isthier Chaudhury.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

During the 2024-25 academic year, 52,500 students under 18 earned certificates or associate degrees — nearly four times as many as a decade earlier, according to a National Student Clearinghouse research report.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

The existing rule meant more than 70,000 students each year were an average of £175 worse off than those in the same academic year who hadn't yet had their 18th birthday, the DfT said.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

He looks unmoved, which makes me wonder about the state of his academic record.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

More than 12,000 people - including Green Party leader Zack Polanski, at least five Labour MPs and some Cambridge academics - have signed a petition set up by the Good Law Project supporting Arday.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

Commonly used by journalists, lawyers, academics and advocacy groups such as the ACLU, public information can be requested by anyone under the California Public Records Act.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

Now, sociology, long derided by many academics in humanities and the “harder” social sciences for its perceived squishiness, is being criticized from within.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

Others, like “Obsession,” catapult from modest beginnings into an echelon of popularity that not even the academics and historians could’ve foreseen.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

Most academics can effortlessly dispense this kind of sludge, and many students, like Zonker Harris in this Doonesbury cartoon, acquire the skill without having to be taught.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Related Words

• academician
• lecturer
• professor
• scholar
• student