academic

UK/ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/

academic adjective: belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.

Adjective

academic (comparative more academic, superlative most academic)

Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.
- the academic sect or philosophy
Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning, or a scholarly society or organization.
- But unhappily, by too short a view of things, you have been apt to mistake the completion of your academic courses for the completion of your theologic studies: and then, by a false modesty, have despaired of knowing more than you would suffer those august places of your education to teach you.1761, William Warburton, A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester; republished as The Works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, D. D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester, volume 9, 1811, page...
- It was left to the motor industry, half a century later, to destroy Oxford's academic calm.1959 December, John Alves, “Resorts for Railfans - 29: Oxford”, in Trains Illustrated, page 596
In particular: relating to literary, classical, or artistic studies like the humanities, rather than to technical or vocational studies like engineering or welding.
- Programs of work should provide students the opportunities to demonstrate both academic and vocational competence attainment.1991, Wisconsin State Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education, Accountability Report, and ... State Plan for Vocational, Technical and Adult Education in Wisconsin, page 16
- Evidence for cannibalism abounds - even if circumstantial - both from the modern world and throughout history, but academic anthropology has found itself in a funk of denial.2000 September 7, Henry Gee, “Eating people - is it bad taste?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 May 2014
Having little practical use or value, as by being overly detailed and unengaging, or by being theoretical and speculative with no practical importance.
- I have always had an academic interest in hacking.
- the distinction is academic
Having a love of or aptitude for learning.
- I’m more academic than athletic — I get lower marks in phys. ed. than in anything else.
Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic.
1. Subscribing to the architectural standards of Vitruvius.
So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness; inexperienced in practical matters.

Noun

academic (plural academics)

(capitalized, usually) A follower of Plato, a Platonist.
A senior member of an academy, college, or university; a person who attends an academy; a person engaged in scholarly pursuits; one who is academic in practice.
- Academics[…]see integrated systems for collecting, processing and acting on data as offering a “second electrification” to the world’s metropolises.2013 September 7, “The multiplexed metropolis”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8852
A member of the Academy; an academician.
- Carneades the academick, when he was to write against Zeno the stoick, purged himself with hellebor first […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
(archaic) A student in a college.
(plural, plural-only) Academic dress; academicals.
(plural, plural-only) Academic studies.
- Many spoke of an intense fear of failing one’s academics at university, which can both be highly motivating to secure academic success (sometimes at the cost of socialising), but can also immobilise one’s desire to try harder as it can be rather disappointing if one does not succeed. […] Many...2021 July 25, Jiedi Lei, and Ailsa Russell, “Understanding the role of self-determination in shaping university experiences for autistic and typically developing students in the United Kingdom”, in...

academic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

academic in Hindi

academic: अकादमिक akādmik
academic, scholarly: पंडिताऊ paṇḍitāū

academic in Urdu

academic: علمی 'ilmī, اکادمک akādmik

academic in Bengali

কেবল কেতাবি যুক্তিসমূহ, কেবল কেতাবি বিদ্যা, অধিবিদ্যাবিৎ, কেতাবি

More languagesFewer languages

academic in Malayalam: വിദ്യാഭ്യാസ vidyābhyāsa
academic in Kannada: ಕಲಿಕೆಯ, ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೊದಗದ, ಬರಿಕಲಿಕೆಯ, ಪ್ರೌಢ ವಿದ್ಯೆಯ
academic in Tagalog: pantalisikan, talisiknin
academic in Arabic: أَكَادِيمِيّ ʔakādīmiyy, متقيد بالقوانين mutaqayyid bil-qawānīn, ملتزم بالقوانين multazim bil-qawānīn, أستاذ ʔustaḏ
academic in Indonesian: akademik, akademis
academic in Persian: دانشگاهی dāneshgāhi
academic in Thai: นักวิชาการ nák-wí-chaa-gaan, นักศึกษา nák-sʉ̀k-sǎa
academic in Vietnamese: học thuật

Examples of academic in a sentence

an academic question
The character of the process by which the views of the intellectuals influence the politics of tomorrow is therefore of much more than academic interest.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of...
"Anyway, we have the triffids controlled well enough so it's an academic point and scarcely worth raising."1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 49:
The exact sequence and timing of the subsequent explosions and inflight fires are not known and are, in fact, somewhat academic with respect to the probable cause of the accident.1965 February 25, Civil Aeronautics Board, “Analysis”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Pan American World Airways, Inc Boeing 707-121, N709PA...
But almost always such words are irreversibly established before the objectors learn of their existence, and the objections are hardly more than academic exercises.1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 112:

All 40 example sentences with academic

Forms of academic

Adjective
comparative	more academic
superlative	most academic
alternative abbreviation	acad
alternative abbreviation	acad.
alternative form	Academic
alternative form (obsolete)	academick
Noun
plural	academics

Plural of academic: academics

Origin of academic

From both the Medieval Latin acadēmicus and the French académique, from Latin academia, from Ancient Greek ἀκαδημικός (akadēmikós), from Ἀκαδημία (Akadēmía) or Ἀκαδήμεια (Akadḗmeia), the name of the place where Plato taught; compare academy. By surface analysis, academy + -ic.

Words formed from academic

Phrases with academic

Words that rhyme with academic

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about academic

What does academic mean?: Academic means belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.
What is academic in Hindi?: Academic in Hindi is अकादमिक (akādmik), पंडिताऊ (paṇḍitāū). See Academic meaning in Hindi.
How do you use academic in a sentence?: an academic question
What part of speech is academic?: Academic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce academic?: Academic is pronounced /ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/ (UK).

Words near academic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: academic (page history and authors); अकादमिक (Hindi) (page history and authors); academic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اکادمک (Urdu) (page history and authors); academic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); academic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-academic.ogg.

Cite this entry: “academic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/academic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.