Academic

How to spell academic

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce academic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does academic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to education, scholarship, or the work of schools and universities.
2. nounA teacher or scholar who works at a university or college.
3. adjectiveOf theoretical interest only, with no practical effect on a situation.

Academic in a sentence

• adjective

  Her academic record secured a place at the university.

• noun

  The panel included a leading academic from the medical faculty.

• adjective

  Once the contract was cancelled, the dispute became purely academic.

• adjective

  The journal publishes academic research in economics.

• noun

  As a respected academic she advised the government on policy.

• adjective

  Whether we could afford the trip was academic after the flights sold out.

Where does academic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek Akadēmeia, the name of a public grove and gymnasium on the edge of ancient Athens where the philosopher Plato established his famous school around 387 BC. The grove itself was named after Akademos, a legendary local hero, so the link between learning and the word is purely an accident of geography. The Greek adjective akadēmikos meant 'relating to that school or its teachings', and it passed into Latin as academicus before reaching English through French in the late 1500s. Originally it described followers of Plato's philosophy, but by the 1600s it had broadened to mean anything connected with scholarship, universities, and formal study. A later sense, 'theoretical and of no practical use', grew out of the idea that scholarly debate can be detached from the real world. The single 'c' before the 'a' and the '-ic' ending are the usual spelling snags, since the word looks as if it might double a letter somewhere but does not.

How the word is built

• academ- (from Akadēmeia, the grove where Plato taught)
• -ic (adjective/noun suffix)