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the campus activity, life, and interests of a college or university; the world.
(sometimes initial capital letter) any place of instruction; a school.
(initial capital letter) the public grove in Athens in which Plato taught.
a person living in, accustomed to, or preferring the environment of a university.
a scholarly or pedantic person, especially a teacher or student.
Historical Examples

There are the dark groves of academe, a place of rest in a bare land.
The Near East Robert Hichens

“The Grove of academe,” replied Abbey, and the eyes of the artist and his wife were riveted on the editor.
The Americanization of Edward Bok Edward William Bok

After all superficial contrasts have been exhausted, she may still claim the patronage of the philosopher of academe.
Modern Women and What is Said of Them Anonymous

Athens revives the academe and reinstates the Olympic games under a literary avatar.
Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 17, No. 97, January, 1876 Various

He was in his mid-twenties, young and slick, his only nod to academe a small goatee.
Makers Cory Doctorow

And now if you’re to be congratulated before I go back to the groves of academe pray bestir yourself.
The Little Brown Jug at Kildare Meredith Nicholson

The spirit that of old had hallowed the shades of academe presided over these gatherings.
Creed And Deed Felix Adler

At all events, there is sufficient groundwork for any quantity of euphuism about “classic shades,” “groves of academe,” et cetera.
Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, August, 1863, No. 70 Various

It was Billy who spoke, as his eyes first rested upon that eminent pinnacle of academe.
Philosophy 4 Owen Wister

noun (literary)
any place of learning, such as a college or university
the grove of Academe, the groves of Academe, the academic world
n.

“The Academy,” 1580s, from phrase groves of Academe, translating Horace’s silvas Academi (see academy); general sense of “the world of universities and scholarship” is attested from 1849. With lower-case letter, academia in the sense of “academic community” is from 1956.

Academe properly means Academus (a Greek hero); & its use as a poetic variant for academy, though sanctioned by Shakespeare, Tennyson & Lowell, is a mistake; the grove of A., however, (Milton) means rightly The Academy. [Fowler]