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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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nigel's academy at Goals in Wimbledon is part of Play Their Way, a coaching campaign backed by Sport England.
From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026
Wood took his discipline seriously, striving for and achieving the sort of objectivity that became unfashionable in the academy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
And while elite teams and the MLS academy system is fine, the top of the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 7, 2026
"I started playing when I was young and I never expected this kind of result," said Cobolli, who was a footballer in Roma's academy before concentrating on tennis.
From BBC • Jun. 7, 2026
She became an assistant at the Aero Navigation Laboratory of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in Moscow, working with the academy instructor and director, Aleksandr Belyakov.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
