Academia

How to spell academia

8 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce academia

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does academia mean?

1. nounThe community of universities, scholars, and academic research considered as a whole.

Academia in a sentence

• After a decade in industry, she returned to academia to teach and publish.

• The debate about funding has divided opinion across academia.

Where does academia come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to Akademeia, the name of a grove and gymnasium just outside ancient Athens where the philosopher Plato taught. The site was named after a local hero called Akademos (or Hekademos), so the original sense had nothing to do with study; it was simply a place associated with a legendary figure. Because Plato's followers gathered there, the name came to stand for his school of philosophy, and Latin borrowed it as academia, meaning a place or community of learning. English took up 'academy' through French and Latin in the 1500s, while the fuller Latin form 'academia' was adopted later as a collective term for the world of scholars, universities, and research. The single -c- and the -emia ending catch writers out, since there is no doubling and the stressed vowel sounds like 'ee', which tempts some people toward an extra letter.

How the word is built

• academ- (from Greek Akademeia, Plato's school)
• -ia (Latin noun suffix forming a collective domain)