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
Relevance
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 theoretical
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
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Recent Examples of academic
Scott Neuman, NPR, 9 Mar. 2026
Faculty recognized his lack of experience, either as academic or administrator.
—Karen J. Leader, Sun Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2026
Literary Hub, 19 Feb. 2026
In Norway, a former prime minister was charged with corruption linked to Epstein, while a princess is also named in the files, shattering Norway’s self-image as egalitarian, high-trust, and low corruption, a Norwegian academic wrote in The Guardian.
—Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 16 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Adjective
The 2006 Virgin Islands conference illustrates how Epstein used philanthropy to build relationships with scientists and academic institutions.
—Scott Neuman, NPR, 9 Mar. 2026
Faculty recognized his lack of experience, either as academic or administrator.
—Karen J. Leader, Sun Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2026
Noun
The husband of one friend is an academic, a fellow writer, and part of the Southwest Asian/North African diaspora.
—Literary Hub, 19 Feb. 2026
In Norway, a former prime minister was charged with corruption linked to Epstein, while a princess is also named in the files, shattering Norway’s self-image as egalitarian, high-trust, and low corruption, a Norwegian academic wrote in The Guardian.
—Prashant Rao, semafor.com, 16 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for academic
Adjective
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The hotel is also collaborating with government technical schools to develop a training program, contributing to educational advancement and offering a career path to residents.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
10 Mar. 2026
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From the early days of the Waterbury Extension Center to today’s vibrant downtown campus, UConn has been part of that community’s educational and economic growth.—
Radenka Maric,
Hartford Courant,
9 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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But the cinematic room is so great for making sure that these intellectual ideas become visceral.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Mar. 2026
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Radić, who is 60 and the second Chilean architect to win the award, has designed dozens of buildings that have earned him a formidable reputation in artistic and intellectual circles.—
Neda Ulaby,
NPR,
12 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Perhaps, now that my theoretical love life was upon all of us, my mother was having second thoughts about the value of my happiness.—
Han Ong,
New Yorker,
15 Mar. 2026
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However, a new theoretical study suggests that the road to this promise is much longer than many researchers had hoped.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Woke doesn't just characterize academe, academe is from where almost every trope of woke originally came.—
Bradley Gitz,
Arkansas Online,
26 Jan. 2026
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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
Noun
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Since the 1970s, feminist scholars have been actively documenting the ways menstruation has been used to ground false arguments about women’s weakness, invalidism, and inferiority in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Mar. 2026
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Child actor Jax James has been set in the series regular role of Dougie, Maureen’s only son who is not even ten but acts like a 60-year-old scholar and has no time for childish fancies.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
10 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Leslie Hairston, a former City Council colleague of Preckwinkle’s whose South Side ward abutted hers, said Preckwinkle’s scholarly disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for indifference.—
A.D. Quig,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Mar. 2026
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Specifically, the study found the PATM patients emitted more petrochemicals, organosulfur compounds, and some aldehydes (including 39 times the normal amount of toluene, a chemical found in crude oil), among other distinctions—findings published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports in 2023.—
Caroline Tien,
SELF,
6 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The building features 28-foot clear heights, concrete tilt-panel construction, 4,032 square feet of speculative office space, trailer parking and is designed to accommodate a wide range of user needs.—
Jessica Alvarado Gamez,
Denver Post,
10 Mar. 2026
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If the surprisingly rough-and-tumble world of 16th-century playwrights doesn’t immediately compel you, know that this is the kind of book in which every page is filled with an unexpected twist or insight (however speculative or hard to prove these conclusions may turn out to be).—
Rhian Sasseen,
The Atlantic,
10 Mar. 2026
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
Cite this Entry
“Academic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/academic. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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