Word.ws English Dictionary

academism

US/əˈkæd.əˌmɪz.əm/

academism is the alternative form of academicism.

Meaning of academicism

Noun

academicism (countable and uncountable, plural academicisms)

  1. (capitalized, sometimes) The doctrines of Plato's academy; specifically the skeptical doctrines of the later academy stating that nothing can be known; a tenet of the Academic philosophy; state of being Academic.
  2. Traditional or orthodox formalism; conventionalism.
  3. Speculative thoughts and attitudes.
  4. A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy.

See all 5 meanings of academicism

Noun capitalized: Academism

Academism (uncountable)

  1. (historical) The philosophy of the Platonic Academy; Hellenistic Platonism and skepticism.
    • […] since this is the great principle of Academism and Scepticism, That Truth cannot be perceived, […]1733, Andrew Baxter, An Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, volume 2, A. Millar, published 1745, page 254
    • Skeptical Academism, on the other hand, was certainly influenced by Empiricism’s topics […]2018, Fabio Stok, “Medical Sects: Herophilus, Erasistratus, Empiricists”, in Paul T. Keyser, John Scarborough, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World, →ISBN, page...

Forms of academism

pluralacademisms

Origin of academism

From academy + -ism.

Questions about academism

What does academism mean?
Academism means the philosophy of the Platonic Academy; Hellenistic Platonism and skepticism.
What is academism the alternative form of?
Academism is the alternative form of academicism.
What part of speech is academism?
Academism is a noun.
How do you pronounce academism?
Academism is pronounced /əˈkæd.əˌmɪz.əm/ (US).
What is the plural of academism?
The plural of academism is academisms.

Words near academism in the dictionary

  1. academisation
  2. academise
  3. academised
  4. academises
  5. academising
  6. academism
  7. academisms
  8. academist
  9. academists
  10. academite
  11. academites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: academism (page history and authors); Academism (page history and authors); academicism (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-academism.wav.

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