academies

Noun

academy (plural academies)

1. An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university; typically a private school.
   • The artists of London had long maintained a private academy for improvement in the art of drawing from living figures1760–5, Tobias Smollett, The history of England from the revolution in 1688, to the death of George II, published 1805, page 449
2. A school or place of training in which some special art is taught.
   • the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music; a music academy; a language academy
3. A society of learned people united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science.
   • the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology

   Synonyms:

   learned society

4. Academia.
   • In the academy and outside of it, the privileging of technical expertise above other forms of knowledge is a political gesture, and one that has proved highly effective in neutralizing critique of established power relations.2016, Neoliberal Tools (and Archives): A Political History of Digital Humanities
5. A body of established opinion in a particular field, regarded as authoritative.
6. (UK) A school directly funded by central government, independent of local control; a charter school.

See all 16 meanings of academy