academic
[ak-uh-dem-ik]
- of or relating to a college, academy, school, or other educational institution, especially one for higher education: academic requirements.
- pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, as the humanities or pure mathematics.
- theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful: an academic question; an academic discussion of a matter already decided.
- learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.
- conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional: academic painting.
- acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university: academic preparation for the ministry.
- (initial capital letter) of or relating to Academe or to the Platonic school of philosophy.
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- a student or teacher at a college or university.
- a person who is academic in background, attitudes, methods, etc.: He was by temperament an academic, concerned with books and the arts.
- (initial capital letter) a person who supports or advocates the Platonic school of philosophy.
- academics, the scholarly activities of a school or university, as classroom studies or research projects: more emphasis on academics and less on athletics.
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Origin of academic
Synonyms
See more synonyms for academic on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for academics
Contemporary Examples
The media and academics love to portray these voters as the typical independent when they represent less than half of them.
Yes, Independent Swing Voters Are Real. And May Decide Who Wins ElectionsLinda Killian
November 3, 2014
Breman kept calling doctors and academics, but there were no answers to be found.
It would be an immediate object of, as academics often put it, “contestation.”
Indeed in 1947 a group of academics at the University of Chicago drafted a constitution for “the Federal Republic of the World.”
I think social banditry, as the academics call it, is a proud American tradition.
Historical Examples
Their followers were called, respectively, Academics and Cynics.
Aristotle and Ancient Educational IdealsThomas Davidson
Some of our young students will be telling me perhaps that I have overlooked the Academics.
The Mormon Doctrine of DeityB. H. Roberts
However, the right to hack shouldnt only be extended to academics.
Little BrotherCory Doctorow
Moreover, the Academics had allowed the possibility of probable knowledge.
A Critical History of Greek PhilosophyW. T. Stace
Plutarch's word is κατάληψις, the word that was used by the Academics.
Plutarch's Lives, Volume IIAubrey Stewart & George Long
academic
- belonging or relating to a place of learning, esp a college, university, or academy
- of purely theoretical or speculative interestan academic argument
- excessively concerned with intellectual matters and lacking experience of practical affairs
- (esp of a schoolchild) having an aptitude for study
- conforming to set rules and traditions; conventionalan academic painter
- relating to studies such as languages, philosophy, and pure science, rather than applied, technical, or professional studies
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- a member of a college or university
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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
Word Origin and History for academics
academic
adj.
1580s, "relating to an academy," also "collegiate, scholarly," from Latin academicus "of the Academy," from academia (see academy). Meaning "theoretical, not practical, not leading to a decision" (such as university debates or classroom legal exercises) is from 1886. Academic freedom is attested from 1901. Related: Academically.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper