academic

adjective

1. 1

   Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.

   the academic sect or philosophy

2. 2

   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.

   It was left to the motor industry, half a century later, to destroy Oxford's academic calm.

3. 3

   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.

   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.

4. 4

   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

   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.

5. 5

   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.

6. 6

   Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic.

7. 7

   Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic. Subscribing to the architectural standards of Vitruvius.

8. 8

   So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness; inexperienced in practical matters.

noun

1. 1

   A follower of Plato, a Platonist.

2. 2

   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.

3. 3

   A member of the Academy; an academician.

   Carneades the academick, when he was to write against Zeno the stoick, purged himself with hellebor first […].

4. 4

   archaicA student in a college.

5. 5

   Academic dress; academicals.

6. 6

   Academic studies.

Forms

plural

academics

comparative

more academic

superlative

most academic