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of or relating to a college, , school, or other educational inst-tution, especially one for higher education:
academic requirements.
pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, as the humanities or pure mathematics.
theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful:
an academic question; an academic discussion of a matter already decided.
learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.
conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional:
academic painting.
acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university:
academic preparation for the ministry.
(initial capital letter) of or relating to academe or to the platonic school of philosophy.
a student or teacher at a college or university.
a person who is academic in background, att-tudes, methods, etc.:
he was by temperament an academic, concerned with books and the arts.
(initial capital letter) a person who supports or advocates the platonic school of philosophy.
academics, the scholarly activities of a school or university, as cl-ssroom studies or research projects:
more emphasis on academics and less on athletics.
contemporary examples

they are total, and have been used as the basis for excluding israeli academics from conferences.
what does the asa boycott mean? they don’t know. jay michaelson december 3, 2013

the targets discovered by academics are obviously absolutely essential, but they are very far from a working drug.
the seen and the unseen megan mcardle october 17, 2012

but this is not because i think that scholarship is wasteful, or academics are useless.
what’s the use of a phd? megan mcardle february 20, 2013

it would be an immediate object of, as academics often put it, “contestation.”
we’ve got bigger problems than a confederate flag john mcwhorter august 27, 2014

but to stratfordians—the academics who take the traditional view of shakespeare by shakespeare—such debate is entirely fatuous.
was shakespeare a fraud? chris lee october 17, 2011

historical examples

as much, said epistemon, is related of the daemon of socrates, so celebrated among the academics.
gargantua and pantagruel, complete. francois rabelais

however, the right to hack shouldnt only be extended to academics.
little brother cory doctorow

cicero highly commends his works and admits his own debt in the academics to the treatise περὶ ἐποχῆς.
encyclopaedia britannica, 11th edition, volume 6, slice 5 various

they mean the realities of liberty and not the academics of theory.
the art of public speaking dale carnagey (aka dale carnegie) and j. berg esenwein

but this subject has been, i think, quite fully set forth in my “academics.”
de officiis marcus tullius cicero

adjective
belonging or relating to a place of learning, esp a college, university, or academy
of purely theoretical or speculative interest: an academic argument
excessively concerned with intellectual matters and lacking experience of practical affairs
(esp of a schoolchild) having an apt-tude for study
conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional: an academic painter
relating to studies such as languages, philosophy, and pure science, rather than applied, technical, or professional studies
noun
a member of a college or university
adj.

1580s, “relating to an academy,” also “collegiate, scholarly,” from latin academicus “of the academy,” from academia (see academy). meaning “theoretical, not practical, not leading to a decision” (such as university debates or cl-ssroom legal exercises) is from 1886. academic freedom is attested from 1901. related: academically.