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View synonyms for academic

academic

[ ak-uh-dem-ik ]

adjective

  1. of or relating to a college, academy, school, or other educational institution:

    academic requirements.

  2. pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, as the humanities or pure mathematics.

    Synonyms: liberal, humanist

  3. theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful:

    an academic question;

    an academic discussion of a matter already decided.

  4. learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.

    Synonyms: theoretical

  5. conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional:

    academic painting.

  6. acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university:

    academic preparation for the ministry.

  7. Academic, of or relating to Academe or to the Platonic school of philosophy.


noun

  1. a student or teacher at a college or university.
  2. a person who is academic in background, attitudes, methods, etc.:

    He was by temperament an academic, concerned with books and the arts.

  3. Academic, a person who supports or advocates the Platonic school of philosophy.
  4. academics, the scholarly activities of a school or university, as classroom studies or research projects:

    more emphasis on academics and less on athletics.

academic

/ ˌækəˈdɛmɪk /

adjective

  1. belonging or relating to a place of learning, esp a college, university, or academy
  2. of purely theoretical or speculative interest

    an academic argument

  3. excessively concerned with intellectual matters and lacking experience of practical affairs
  4. (esp of a schoolchild) having an aptitude for study
  5. conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional

    an academic painter

  6. relating to studies such as languages, philosophy, and pure science, rather than applied, technical, or professional studies


noun

  1. a member of a college or university

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Derived Forms

  • ˌacaˈdemically, adverb

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Other Words From

  • an·ti·ac·a·dem·ic adjective noun
  • in·ter·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • non·ac·a·dem·ic adjective noun
  • pro·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • pseu·do·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • qua·si-ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • sem·i·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • sub·ac·a·dem·ic adjective
  • un·ac·a·dem·ic adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of academic1

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin Acadēmicus, from Greek Akadēmeikós. See academy, academe, -ic

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Synonym Study

See formal.

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Example Sentences

This may not translate to anything where you’re from, but Ishaq’s nickname, largely because of a brilliant academic record, was Newton.

From Ozy

MTS’s public security committee on Thursday appointed a steering committee that includes advocates, academics and community leaders who are expected to assist with the outside review.

Savoie says that some academic quantum researchers have wrongly disparaged current uses of quantum computers and quantum algorithms because they can’t yet do things that are impossible to do on a classical computer.

From Fortune

Some experts have proposed leveling out the playing field by increasing government funding to academic labs for AI research.

The academics surveyed nearly 1,000 venture capitalists—572 in the US and 381 elsewhere—and asked them to rate the health of the startups in their investment portfolios.

From Quartz

Do you think academic history and popular history have gotten more similar over the last 15 or 20 years?

Are you seeing more commercial pressure from academic presses for historians to sexy it up a bit?

Their claims have led to both academic controversy and localized conflict.

They are afflicted with “progressive spiritual emptiness,” he said, which no amount of academic honors and degrees can fill.

Academic freedom has been a hot debate within education circles.

The earnest youth grinding at the academic mill has dreamed it in the pauses of his studious labor.

The Wren Building, named in his honor, was constructed by 1698 and it is the oldest academic structure still in existence.

While his two brothers carried on the business he devoted himself to an academic career.

Later in the evening Jenny Wick accompanied Paul, as he sang some old ballads full of a kind of academic gruesomeness.

Later again, he turned to the more ancient Greeks, and the result 193 was the most academic of his pictures, his “Leonidas.”

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