variants
also academical
1
as in educational
of or relating to schooling or learning especially at an advanced level
"If you spent more time in academic pursuits and less time in social ones, you could easily make good grades," the dean told Valerie
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in intellectual
very learned or educated but inexperienced in practical matters
academic thinkers who have no understanding of realpolitik
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in theoretic
existing only as an assumption or speculation
your arguments are merely academic—such a worst-case scenario is unlikely to ever occur
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in academe
Related Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of academic
Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Minas Liarokapis, a Greek academic and startup founder who organized the Olympiad, made a rather bold prediction regarding humanoids becoming a helping hand in the kitchens and other household chores.
—Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 2 Sep. 2025
Louis Menand, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
The discovery was made after reexamining a jawbone that had been in an academic collection for nearly a century.
—Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for academic
Adjective
Moskos was a police officer in Baltimore's Eastern District, a notoriously rough part of the city, before becoming an academic.
—Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 3 Sep. 2025
Minas Liarokapis, a Greek academic and startup founder who organized the Olympiad, made a rather bold prediction regarding humanoids becoming a helping hand in the kitchens and other household chores.
—Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 2 Sep. 2025
Noun
The petition was widely circulated in the academic world, and it was not received with enthusiasm.
—Louis Menand, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
The discovery was made after reexamining a jawbone that had been in an academic collection for nearly a century.
—Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 26 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for academic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for academic
Adjective
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Claudia Joseph teaches permaculture in the Mid-Hudson valley while developing her homestead as an educational model.—
Catherine Habgood
September 29,
Literary Hub,
29 Sep. 2025
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At the same time, the company is investing $1 million, in partnership with the VF Foundation, to the National Park Foundation to help youth explore national parks and partake in outdoor educational experiences.—
Jean E. Palmieri,
Footwear News,
29 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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As the more intellectual and empathetic Vladimir, Winter achingly conveys his hopeful optimism and crippling realization that Godot, in fact, may never arrive.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
29 Sep. 2025
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Rooted in the land-grant tradition, the UA System expands access to academic, practical, and professional opportunities, fosters intellectual growth and student success, promotes discovery and public service, and strengthens Arkansas's economy, health, and culture.—
Ryan Anderson,
Arkansas Online,
26 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Chinese research took a long while to recover from Mao’s purge of academe.—
Shivaram Rajgopal,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2025
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His ideas have particularly struck a chord with readers who deal in aesthetics—artists, curators, designers, and architects—even though Han has not quite been embraced by philosophy academe.—
Kyle Chayka,
The New Yorker,
17 Apr. 2024
Noun
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Eisgruber, who is a scholar of constitutional law, believes that Sullivan is the cornerstone of American free-speech law.—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
26 Sep. 2025
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And in that present, Fugazi’s drummer, a scholar of caste, and a border reporter are no longer distant figures.—
Javier Garcia del Moral
September 26,
Literary Hub,
26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The idea of a faculty committee empowered to vet scholarly publications for racial bias has, ineluctably, a Star Chamber vibe.—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
26 Sep. 2025
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Unlike Boggs and Wade, whose subjects had commanded biographical and scholarly attention for decades, Richardson was breaking trail from the beginning, writing a life that had never been written before.—
Megan Marshall
September 25,
Literary Hub,
25 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Numerical simulations and a theoretical quantum model validated the experimental results, confirming that the two phonon modes were indeed in the ultrastrong coupling regime.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
30 Sep. 2025
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In a country where disabled people are overrepresented in jails and prisons, psychiatric institutions and police encounters, this isn’t just theoretical.—
Kate Caldwell,
Mercury News,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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There’s little scaffolding or bridging, virtually no space given to centralized agencies, which most development academicians would agree still have their place.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
25 Apr. 2025
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Other founding principals include fellow academicians Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny.—
Charles Rotblut,
Forbes,
18 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Subsequent chapters explore great bookmen of the Renaissance, from the Florentine tradesman Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Flemish illuminator Simon Bening to the English antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton — manuscript obsessives all.—
Bruce Holsinger,
New York Times,
11 Nov. 2023
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Once asked to describe himself, McMurtry called himself a writer, a screenwriter — and perhaps most significantly, a bookman.—
Thomas Curwen,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Academic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/academic. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
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