Academically

How to spell academically

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce academically

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does academically mean?

1. adverbIn a way that relates to education, scholarship, or formal study.
2. adverbIn a purely theoretical sense, without real practical consequence.

Academically in a sentence

• Her son has always performed well academically despite changing schools twice.

• The dispute is now academically moot because both companies have merged.

• The college supports students academically and offers free tutoring sessions.

• Whether the old rule applies is academically interesting but useless in practice.

Where does academically come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek Akademeia, the name of the grove and gymnasium on the edge of ancient Athens where the philosopher Plato taught from around 387 BC. The site was named after the legendary hero Akademos, so the word for scholarly learning literally began as a place name. Latin took it as academia, and French passed it to English as 'academy' in the 1500s, originally meaning a place of higher study. From there English built the adjective 'academic' and then the adverb 'academically', which by the 1800s meant both 'in a scholarly manner' and, more loosely, 'in theory only, with no practical effect'. The long chain of suffixes (-ic, -al, -ly) stacked onto the root is exactly why the spelling feels crowded, and why writers must remember the single 'c' and the buried -al- before the final -ly.

How the word is built

• academ- (from Akademeia, Plato's school)
• -ic (relating to)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)